CORNWALL Council has been criticised in a review into the way it dealt with allegations that one of its councillors viewed child abuse images online before he became a member of the authority.

The independent report, by Alison Lowton — a qualified solicitor with a childcare law background — looked at the handling of safeguarding allegations in relation to Cornwall Councillor for Launceston Central and former Liberal Democrat Cabinet member Alex Folkes and the lessons to be learned from the review.

Ms Lowton concluded that the council 'badly handled' the issue on two occasions, and 'to a great extent, the council's present difficulties flow from this'.

Cllr Folkes, who strongly denies the allegations, said the report was 'both partial and factually inaccurate in a number of key respects'.

Ms Lowton was appointed by the Leader of Cornwall Council to conduct a review on the handling of disclosures arising from a CRB (Criminal Records Board) disclosure relating to Cllr Folkes and to provide a 'lessons learned' report.

Cllr Folkes has previously said he was 'one of many people' arrested in 2006 — before he became a Cornwall councillor in 2009.?He said his credit/debit card details were cloned and on one occasion used to access an illegal website.

In her report, Ms Lowton said a positive disclosure relating to a councillor was received. Staff consulted the council's Monitoring Officer, who agreed to deal with it.

"Recollections about what happened next are contradictory," she said. "What is not disputed is that the Monitoring Officer met with the councillor and came to the conclusion that no safeguarding concerns arose."

The report states that no monitoring arrangements were put in place. No-one else was informed, including the Chief Executive, and there was no referral to the LADO (Local Area Designated Officer) or to the council's safeguarding lead. It was understood that any associated documents, if any, were destroyed after six months.

For the full report, and a round-up of the area news and sport, see this week's edition of the Post.