Council urged to consider further probe into actions of disgraced former head teacher

Dale Spridgeon, local democracy reporter

Senior councillors are set to be called upon to consider whether any further independent investigations into the crimes of disgraced former headteacher Neil Foden are needed.

A notice of motion will be put before Cyngor Gwynedd’s full council meeting this week asking whether further investigations to “address matters outside the boundaries” of a recent Child Practice Review are needed.

The motion has been lodged by Llanrug councillor Beca Brown, in which she praised Foden’s victims for their “”remarkable determination and resilience”.

The disgraced headteacher – who was head at Ysgol Friars, Bangor and the strategic head at Ysgol Dyffryn Nantlle – was jailed in 2024 for 17 years after being convicted of 19 charges involving four girls.

The recent Child Practice Review [CPR], commissioned by the North Wales Safeguarding Board, investigated how Foden was able to sexually abuse girls for years and identified 52 missed chances to stop the “sophisticated” predator.

Cyngor Gwynedd previously said they “apologise unreservedly” for their failures, and said they accepted all of the conclusions and recommendations from the Child Practice Review.

They said they would “continue to put all our energy into responding, as the people of Gwynedd would expect of us”.

Debated

The full notice of motion proposed by Cllr Brown, which will be debated at the full council meeting on Thursday, December 4, states: “We would like to welcome the publication of the Child Practice Review on 4 November, noting our deep thanks to chair, Jan Pickles, for her careful work, and so too to the panel and to the North Wales Safeguarding Board.

“We would like to note the title of the report, which is Our Bravery Brought Justice.

“It is important that we always acknowledge the title when discussing this report, as it pays a well-deserved tribute to the bravery of children – children who were supposed to be safe in their schools, and children who ended years of horrific offending by one of the most powerful men in this county.

“We owe them a great deal. Our thoughts are with them, and we thank them from the bottom of our hearts for their remarkable determination and resilience.

“We as a council are committed to learning all the lessons that come from the report, but beyond that, we are committed to looking at any relevant issues that have fallen outside the remit of the CPR, which looked at the case of this offender in the period from 2017 to September 2023.

“We therefore call on the Cabinet to consider what further independent investigations are needed to address matters outside the boundaries of the CPR.

“We are fully alert to the fact that further work needs to be done and ask the Cabinet to work tirelessly to identify what is yet to be achieved.

“We once again express our sincere apologies to the children who have suffered harm, and we pledge to leave no stone unturned to ensure, to the best of our ability, that ‘never again’ means ‘never again’.”