A survivor of abuse in a children’s care home has made a powerful plea for justice as councillors backed an inquiry into allegations in Maidenhead.

Councillors at the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council have called for an inquiry to find out the truth about child abuse at the Green Field House care home. Councillor Carole Da Costa – a survivor of abuse at another home – said the inquiry could help boys to ‘heal’.

She said: “I speak as a care-experienced survivor who was placed into residential care as a place of safety from my abusers. This children’s home did not meet that description and was not a place of safety with physical, emotional, and sexual abuse being a daily occurrence.

“As such I understand the harm these boys have lived through and the need for them to have their experience acknowledged.”

READ MORE: Call for child abuse inquiry at Green Field children's home Maidenhead

She added that the council should back an inquiry into the Green Field allegations ‘so that the voice of those who have been rendered voiceless after reporting their experience and not being supported, can now be heard and the scared child that lives within them can have a chance to heal’.

Councillor Da Costa’s plea came as members voted unanimously to call for an inquiry into the Green Field care home, which was run by the now-defunct Berkshire County Council.

Care home manager Don Prescott – who has since died – is alleged to have run a paedophile ring from Green Field House where he abused and rented out boys between 1964 and 1970.

The home closed before Berkshire County Council dissolved in 1998. The abuse only came to light in 2000 when one of the survivors – then in his 40s – went to Thames Valley Police after suffering a nervous breakdown.

Although the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead Council never ran the home itself, responsibility passed to it after Berkshire County Council dissolved.

Councillor Neil Knowles – who led the call for an inquiry – said the Royal Borough doesn’t have ‘extensive archives’ about the events surrounding the management of the home as it was never in charge. He said an inquiry would have to be called by the government.

But he added that the council owes it to the survivors to find out the truth about how authorities allowed the abuse to continue.

Councillor Knowles said: “It appears that social services were aware of some this and there must be something that triggered Prescott’s removal. Who knew what and when and why was there not police action taken at the time?

“I find it hard to believe that no action, investigation or questions appear to have taken place.”

He added: “Sadly none of this can bring the childhood back for these boys and I don’t think it will bring closure, but it might provide answers to questions in the minds of each of them.”