Paedophile worked on Climbie council

A convicted paedophile was recruited as a driver for vulnerable children by the council at the centre of the Victoria Climbie scandal.

The serial sex attacker, who has a string of convictions dating back to the Seventies, was employed by Haringey council without any police checks.

The council only discovered it had recruited a child molester when the 53-year-old was stopped by police officers for a series of motoring offences. Subsequent checks revealed Dennis Bell's record and the alarm was raised.

The scandal raises questions about the level of checks done on paedophiles, a problem exposed in the case of Soham murderer Ian Huntley.

Huntley was employed as a school caretaker by the local authority in Cambridgeshire, despite having sex offence allegations against him, before going on to kill Holly Wells and Jessica Chapman.

A series of recommendations to tighten background checks were made earlier this year by the Bichard Inquiry into Huntley's case. But in his damning appraisal, Sir Michael Bichard said he "could not be confident" that the failures to check up on Huntley were a one-off.

An Evening Standard investigation has confirmed these fears. Bell, from east London, was employed by the council in 2002 as a minibus driver for children with learning difficulties. The council failed to carry out checks that would have shown that he was a paedophile with at least nine convictions for sex offences.

His first conviction dates back to 1972 when he was dismissed from the Army after assaulting a young child. In 1987 he was jailed for five years for indecently assaulting a 28-year-old woman with the

mental age of eight while working as a driver for another London borough. In 2002 he appeared at Wood Green Crown Court where he was given a two-year community rehabilitation order for gaining a pecuniary advantage by deception. It is believed this related to the forms he filled out to gain the job working with children in Haringey. He also pleaded guilty to the motoring offences.

Evening Standard has since learned that when the council recruited Bell it failed to request a Criminal Records Bureau check, which is required by law to be carried on all those employed to work with children. Today, experts warned that although an investigation had concluded that Bell had not abused children while working in the borough, nobody could be sure because of the nature of his offences.

There are now calls for the director of social services, Anne Bristow, to resign from her ?120,000-a-year post.

Under council policy, even before Bell was employed by Haringey, staff must have every CRB check confirmed in writing from a recruitment agency. A council spokesman said: "On this occasion that written confirmation-was not sought and the system failed." A source said there was a "massive panic" when the mistake was detected.

Bell was dismissed as soon as his past emerged.

Harry Fletcher, assistant general secretary of the National Association of Probation Officers, said: "It's astonishing that checks have not been done again. Children could have been put at grave risk."

Ron Aitken, Liberal Democrat spokesman for social services in Haringey, said: "I fear that this may be the tip of the iceberg."

Today's revelations follow another investigation into Haringey, which found its social services department had employed 18 convicted criminals in the past three years.

When the Evening Standard confronted Bell, he said: "I thought because the offences had happened some time ago I would not need to say anything. If they had done the checks they would have found out."

He added: "I've applied for a job at Moorfields Eye Hospital - and told them everything."

Haringey would not reveal whether anyone at the council had been disciplined.