18

EXTRACT FROM THE MINUTES OF THE COUNCIL,
SOCIAL CARERS, REFORMERS AND PRAECEPTORS
Meeting held at SCRAP offices, King’s Cross

Present:

 

GWENDOLEN GERDON, Executive Director (ED)
LADY DOUGHBERRY, representing the Bunyan Society for
Prison Reform
PROFESSOR MAXWELL HEATHERINGTON, Reader in
Criminology at the University of East Surrey
CAMPBELL DYSON, Chair of Dyson Soft Furnishing
IVY SINCLAIR, BBC Today programme
PETER BETHELL, partner in the firm of Bethell, Sherman and
Pensotti, Solicitors
THE REV. HARVEY TYLER, Rector, St Barnabas,
King’s Cross
ALEX MARKBY, representing the Probation Service
LEONARD MCGRATH, Chair of Environmentally Friendly
Investments

 

The ED told the meeting that they all very much regretted that Orlando Wathen, after many years of distinguished service as chair of SCRAP, had tendered his resignation as his views on the treatment of offenders had changed considerably and he no longer felt comfortable with our standpoint on crime and the reform of criminals.

Peter Bethell told the meeting that as Orlando’s close friend and legal adviser he knew that Orlando was sad to leave but that he had, in all honesty, to make way for a chair who would share the traditional SCRAP belief in the seed of essential good, in even the worst offender, which could be nurtured and nourished.

Lady Doughberry wished her regret at Mr Wathen’s new stance to be minuted but proposed a vote of thanks to him and SCRAP’s best wishes for his many years of service. Peter Bethell seconded and the motion was carried nem. con.

The ED then told the meeting that in casting round to find a suitable successor as chair we were grateful to Alex Markby, representing the Probation Service, for his kind assistance. He had a proposal to put before the council.

Alex Markby told the meeting that, given the recent report on the organization’s finances, he felt SCRAP stood in need of a well-known businessman who would have experience of fund-raising to work with Campbell Dyson on the money side. He had been recently most impressed by the generosity of Leonard McGrath, the head of the well-known firm Environmentally Friendly Investments. Leonard had given a job to a young man, Terry Keegan, recently out of the Scrubs, and even put him up in his own maisonette. Alex Markby said he didn’t want to dismiss the well-intentioned efforts of the girl Lucy Purefoy from SCRAP who was in charge of Terry Keegan’s case, but he wasn’t convinced that she took her work entirely seriously. On one occasion, she had misinformed him about Keegan’s address; she seemed to imagine he was working on some sort of farm in the country when he was in fact being cared for and housed by Leonard McGrath, who had become his true praeceptor, counsellor and friend. In his (Alex Markby’s) view, Leonard McGrath would make a perfect chair for SCRAP and ‘would raise our profile in the business world’. He said that Mr McGrath was prepared to say a few words.

Leonard McGrath said he felt that the time had come for him to ‘give back to society something he had taken out of it’ and he looked forward to doing his best for SCRAP. In a long business career he had always taken a considerable interest in the causes of crime and in particular in young criminals. He had been pleased to give shelter to Terry Keegan when he came out of prison and delighted that this young man was now in regular employment. If he was to be offered the chair, he could ‘only say I’ll do my best’.

Alex Markby proposed and Peter Bethell seconded ‘that Leonard McGrath should be appointed chair of SCRAP’. The proposal was passed nem. con.

There was no other business so the meeting ended and tea was served at 4.45 p.m.