The Red House: The children's home run like a cult

Warning: This article contains material some readers may find distressing.

"The teachers would shake, slap and beat you into submission."

"I remember being woken, being raped."

"It was a cult. It wasn't a school in the slightest."

Kyle*, a security worker in his mid-forties, is talking about The Red House, a now defunct children's home in remote Norfolk. Based in a red brick building, set deep in the countryside, it was almost entirely cut off.

Kyle* lived at Red House from the age of 14
Kyle* lived at Red House from the age of 14

Former students report a toxic culture of public shaming and sexual abuse, with staff acting as violent ringleaders. At the heart of these abuse allegations is a Danish co-operative which ran more than 25 similar establishments and became embroiled in a financial scandal.

"They gave me the beating of my life," Kyle says, recalling a brutal attack by fellow students, ordered by a teacher.

"He came in with two or three students and said: 'Go and get him.' I had broken ribs, a cracked jaw and black eyes."

As he left the room, the teacher turned to Kyle and said: "You deserve that."

Born into a family with addiction problems, Kyle arrived at The Red House aged 14. A brochure shown to him by his social worker promised the opportunity for children who had suffered "abuse and neglect" to "start afresh" with sailing and horse riding, as well as "building friendships with teachers". But soon after arriving, he claims the reality of his new home became clear.

"Teachers would put a chair in the middle of the marble hall and sit you there in front of everybody."
Kyle, former Red House student

"They'd allow students to hit you in the face. The teachers would shake, slap and beat you into submission."

'SLAVE LABOUR'

As well as being a home, The Red House was supposed to offer children an education focused on manual work. Kyle's childhood dream of being an architect was quickly shattered. He recalls children being used as "slave labour" to maintain the school's facilities, building shower blocks, bricklaying and painting.

Kyle left the home unable to read and write.

Hundreds of children in care from across the UK were sent to The Red House between 1984 and 1998. Kyle is one of 43 former students who are now in the process of taking legal action for the physical, sexual and psychological abuse they allegedly experienced there.

He says he is in touch with over 60 more victims from The Red House who are not ready to come forward.

Mogens Amdi Petersen, founder of Tvind, which ran The Red House
Mogens Amdi Petersen, founder of Tvind, which ran The Red House

The home was run by the Tvind School Cooperative of Denmark, a controversial group founded in the late 1960s by a left-wing teacher called Mogens Amdi Petersen. A hippy guru with long hair and woolly jumpers, he attracted followers with his vision of how they could change the world.

Tvind opened around 30 radical schools in Denmark, most for disadvantaged children, and two in England: The Red House in Norfolk and The Small School in East Yorkshire.

Local authorities could pay Tvind up to 拢4,000 per month for the education, care and welfare of each child. Teachers were also expected to donate their salary to the organisation and live communally.

"They objected to learning from books," says Jes Fabricus Moeller, an associate professor from Copenhagen University, who has written a book about the organisation.

Jes Fabricus Moeller from Copenhagen University
Jes Fabricus Moeller from Copenhagen University

"A famous phrase of theirs was: 'You can't see the world if you look into a book' - that was part anti-intellectual, but it was also the idea that learning by doing is much better."
Jes Fabricus Moeller

Tvind Schools have mostly closed in Denmark and many former students have spoken positively of the unconventional education they received.

The schools are not widely associated with child abuse, it is claimed The Red House was the exception.

'I WOKE UP BEING RAPED'

Hayley was 13 when she was sent to The Red House. Now 44, her no-nonsense attitude makes her appear tough. Dressed all in black, her nails are bright pink and her hands are covered in small, black tattoos.

She describes the way staff used to violently restrain pupils, with multiple people pinning her on the floor.

"I thought I was going to die because I couldn't breathe," she says tearfully.

Hayley was 13 when she was sent to The Red House
Hayley was 13 when she was sent to The Red House

The Tvind ethos was based around helping developing countries, sometimes by fundraising or manual labour. Students at The Red House would spend months abroad, often travelling in old buses. Hayley was on one such trip in India when she claims to have been sexually assaulted.

"I remember being woken to being raped. I tried to find a teacher but they just told me to go back to bed and said I was lying."

Hayley claims to have been raped multiple times while at The Red House.

Steven is still haunted by his time at the Red House
Steven is still haunted by his time at the Red House

Steven, 50, from Newcastle, also claims to have experienced physical and sexual abuse while at the home. Orphaned at a young age, he was placed in multiple children's homes before arriving at The Red House aged 12.

He says he was molested and is now unable to work due to complex post-traumatic stress disorder, which stems from his time at the home.

"I will never get the screams of children being raped out of my head."

Steven also claims he endured regular beatings from the headmaster. If children wet the bed, he says, they were forced to wear a nappy and run around with a toilet seat above their head, in full view of everyone.

A RIOT AT THE SCHOOL

In 1989, children tried to alert the authorities about what was happening at the school by staging a riot. Windows were smashed and buildings damaged.

Steven thought help had arrived when police officers appeared, but instead they arrested him and 17 other pupils, charging them with violent disorder and criminal damage.

Inspections by regulatory bodies revealed growing concern from authorities about The Red House. In 1990, the Social Services Inspectorate wrote to directors of local authorities warning them against sending children to the home.

It listed allegations including sexual assault by a teacher from Denmark, physical abuse by teachers and a gang rape by three pupils.

A report made by Norfolk County Council in 1994 shows they were aware of reports of 20 victims of child abuse.

Despite allegations of abuse being clearly documented, the home continued to operate.

Two years later, the Charity Commission began an inquiry into the home over concerns that funds from the home, which were meant for the charity, were instead being siphoned off to private businesses and Tvind's leaders.

Sky News has obtained a copy of the Social Services Inspectorate letter highlighting concerns raised at The Red House in 1990.

FINANCIAL SCANDAL

In the 1990s, Danish authorities and the FBI claimed funds meant for the organisation's charitable arm were being used as part of a money-laundering network, with money going into the accounts of Tvind's inner circle - The Teachers' Group - made up of around 600 loyal members.

In 2003, Petersen and seven others from the group were put on trial in Denmark in a 拢15m fraud and embezzlement case. He was acquitted, but by the time the prosecution appealed against that decision, Petersen had fled to Mexico, where it is understood he remains.

Steen is one of the few former members who has spoken publicly
Steen is one of the few former members who has spoken publicly

In 1998, The Red House and Winestead Hall were closed down by the Charity Commission. Steen Thomsen, a former headteacher at Winestead Hall, is one of the few former members of the inner circle who has publicly criticised Tvind. He joined aged 24, excited by the prospect of being part of a "socialist" group.

"We wanted equality, a better world and to think about how we can be a force for change."

Now 76, Steen seems conflicted by what Tvind could have been and the reality of what it became. Dressed in black with a white beard, he greets me at his home in north Denmark, where the smell of coffee and fresh pastries waft from the kitchen.

There are photos of his grandchildren on the walls, but none of Steen from his childhood. He says Petersen ordered members to destroy photos of their lives before they joined. All romantic relationships also had to be approved by the leader.

"If I had a relationship with one of the women within the teachers' group, it would be controlled. If you wanted to marry or have children, that would be difficult."

In 1998, Steen became aware that Tvind was funnelling money out of the charity-run schools in England. He left and went straight to the bank to make sure his final month's salary would stay in his account.

"It was a mixture of being free and feeling guilty because I was leaving my old friends. I knew that in a way I was betraying them."

He says he became an "outcast" and wrote to the Danish Ministry of Education denouncing Tvind as a cult - which he still believes to be true.

WHAT BECAME OF TVIND?

With Tvind's leader thought to be in Mexico, it's unclear what has become of this mysterious group.

The Tvind site in Denmark
The Tvind site in Denmark

The Tvind International School Centre operates mainly as a teacher training college in west Denmark, on the site where the group first began. Their website describes Tvind as an "educational and cultural collaboration of a number of independent Danish institutions", and says they are no longer associated with the former Tvind co-operation which operated The Red House.

The campus is isolated, surrounded by high pine trees, away from prying eyes. Looming above it is an enormous wind turbine. Built in 1978 by students, it has become the longest-running wind turbine in the world.

Walking around the site, it feels stuck in time, but it is here that our investigation, which began in Norfolk, takes us to a former Red House headteacher who continues to work at the centre. But the man, who can't be named for legal reasons, declined to speak to us.

He has denied physically abusing any children in his care or knowing about any abuse by his staff.

The wind turbine at the Tvind site in Denmark
The wind turbine at the Tvind site in Denmark

Back in the UK, Norfolk Police have carried out two "extensive" investigations, between 1984 and 1998, into allegations of abuse at The Red House. Officers travelled to Denmark in 2017 to conduct interviews, including with the former headteacher, but no one has been charged.

In a statement, Norfolk Police said that due to "evidential difficulties" and "statutory time limits", they had concluded "there was no realistic prospect of achieving a conviction against any suspect".

"We have personally contacted all victims and visited those who agreed to meet with us to explain the outcome of this latest investigation," the force added.

The 43 victims of alleged abuse at The Red House are in the process of suing Norfolk County Council and the local authorities that sent them to the home.

"There was opportunity after opportunity for the authorities to stop the abuse," said Daniel Lemberger Cooper of Imran Khan and Partners, the law firm representing the victims. "But it was - shockingly - allowed to carry on. Why that was, and who was responsible is precisely why my clients are bringing this legal action."

The victims are being supported by the , which campaigns over historical abuse in children's homes in south London. Its co-founder, Dr Raymond Stevenson, said the victims want answers.

"The organisation that ran The Red House was an international company. So who's responsible? The local council that sent them there or the government? I suggest all of them".
Dr Raymond Stevenson, co-founder of Shirley Oaks Association

Signs to the Tvind site in Denmark
Signs to the Tvind site in Denmark

Norfolk County Council has described the allegations as "deeply concerning", adding they have "cooperated fully with investigations, which relate to children that were placed there by other local authorities".

For Kyle, his focus now is trying to make sure those who allowed vulnerable children in their care to be abused are held to account.

"There are still people from this organisation that are here in the UK, and spread around Europe, that need to be brought to justice."

Scandals involving historical abuse in children's homes in the UK are sadly not new. But The Red House is unique for how an international group, regarded by many as a cult, was able to take control of two children's homes in England, allegedly abusing and profiteering from vulnerable children in care.

All the while projecting an image of generous philanthropy to the rest of the world.

*Names have been changed