This week's episode deals with disturbing themes of child sexual assault. Parental discretion is advised. Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClane Smith, where for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories and ideas that, for one reason
or other, didn't make it into the previous show. In our last episode, once there was a Way, we heard the horrifying story of twelve year old Johnny Gosh, who in nineteen eighty two disappeared from the streets of West des Moines in Iowa while out on its paper round. Then two years later it happened again. This time it was fellow newspaper deliverer and Des Moine resident, thirteen year old Eugene Martin. Local police believed it was highly likely
that the two disappearances were linked. It's been said that for many parents in the USA, these disappearances, coming so soon after the high profile abduction of six year old Eton Pats in New York and the murder of Adam Walsh in Florida, also six years old, marked a moment of profound change. No more could children be left to roam the streets on their own or stay out after dark when even supposedly safe Midwestern suburbs offered no protection
from monsters. A culture of stranger danger had taken hold, which later became a full scale moral panic, with some, including Johnny Gosh's parents, raising the possibility that their son had fallen victim to a highly organized child abuse and pornography ring that had links reaching far into the corridors
of power. One suggested link with the Franklin credit union scandal soon morphed into a fanciful conspiracy theory that rich and powerful individuals were facilitating the snatching of young children from the street so that they might later be abused and even murdered at depraved sex parties up and down
the country. This idea is echoed in much of the present day preoccupations of Quanon followers, such as the supposed Pizza Gate conspiracy, which alleges that a cabal of powerful Satanists are currently engaged in the ritual abuse and murder of America's children. Since it isn't actually known what happened to Johnny Gosh or Eugene Martin, it isn't known if they were sexually abused at all, although if they had
been abducted and murdered, the likelihood is high. In truth, however, children are far more likely to be abused by someone they know as opposed to a random stranger snatching them from the street. More often than not, the abuse will be perpetrated by a member or friend of the family, or indeed somebody working within their local community in a
position of care or authority. Such details are of little use for the Gosh and Martin family, however, since there are of course exceptions to that rule, and of what happened to Johnny and Eugene turned out to be one
such exception. For their families, that is the only experience they would know, and in the absence of an explanation as to what happened exactly, it's easy to see how, in the desperate hunt for answers, anyone might start to draw a number of disparate dots into something that begins to look like a cohesive theory, no matter how outlandish
it might sound. And in the wake of numerous historical cases of abuse recently coming to light across the world from within religious institutions or care homes, for example, among other supposedly good organizations, it can be easy to get sucked into outlandish theories when the reality it's not always a million miles away. Back in nineteen ninety three, forty two year old Bulick Forsythe was an office manager for
Lambeth Council Social Services in South London. A trusted and efficient employee, Bulick's primary job was to manage ten properties belonging to the council, as well as drawing up numerous health and safety policies for them. His home was a ground floor flat in Foster Court at the corner of Clapham Park Road and King's Avenue in Clapham, London, where
he'd lived for four years. Although he lived there alone, his wife, Dawn, who was American and six months pregnant with their first child, was in the process of moving to the UK to join him. Bulick is said to have mostly kept himself to himself and was thought to have had few friends, and there was no reason to suspect anything untoward when he clocked off from work on
one afternoon in February nineteen ninety three. That Wednesday, February twenty fourth, however, was the last time anyone would see him alive. According to an episode of Crime Watch, a British TV show dedicated to solving unsolved crimes, broadcast five months later. At nine am on the morning of Thursday twenty fifth, one of Bulick's neighbors noticed his curtains were
wide open. Thirty minutes later, another neighbor, a resident of eighteen years is, claim to have witnessed three men who'd never seen before, leaving Foster Court from the direction of Bulich's flat. The men were described as being smartly dressed and carrying briefcases in their hands and folders under their arms. That same neighbor saw a white car parked up behind the property that he'd also never seen before. That day,
Bulick failed to show up at work. At five pm, A colleague went round to his flat to check on him, but found nobody home, although strangely, the curtains were by then closed, suggesting that someone at least had been inside the property since nine am that morning. Sometime later in the early hours of Friday, around one am, another neighbor described hearing a commotion outside their window and the sound of people running hurriedly from the air. A short time
after that, Bulick's flat went up in flames. When firefighters finally brought the fire under control, Bulick's dead body was found inside, and autopsy revealed that he'd most likely been murdered way back on the Wednesday night after being violently beaten around the head by a hard object. As mentioned in the episode of Crime Watch, some important documents was said to be missing from his flat. Now a word
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That's better help dot com slash unexplained one zero. To this day, Bulick for science murder remains unsolved. In twenty thirteen, however, a witness claiming to be a former colleague of his toll police that Bulick had confided in her shortly before he died that he believed child sexual abuse was taking
place on Lambeth Council property. It later transpired that at the time of his death, the London Metropolitan Police, in what was called Operation Bell, were conducting an investigation into scores of allegations from children living in Lambeth Council care homes who claimed they were being sexually and physically abused by staff members. The allegations also included reports that videos and photographs had been made of the abuse and implicated
police and some local politicians. Simultaneously, in the wake of these allegations, an internal review was set up conducted by Lambeth Council, in which it was uncovered that Bulich had indeed spoken to a colleague shortly before he died, telling her that he suspected hard abuse was taking place in council properties and he was gearing up to reveal everything he knew to the police. Three days later, he was murdered.
Operation Bell concluded in nineteen ninety two, the year before Bulich was killed, four individuals in total were charged with committing abuse. One was found not guilty because their twelve year old accuser was too upset to give evidence in the trial, while another was acquitted because it was decided not to pursue the accusation because it was more than three years old. Only one of those charged was found guilty.
The man was employed by Lambeth Counsel from nineteen seventy nine to nineteen ninety one, and before that had worked as a part time volunteer for the Metropolitan Police. Throughout his time in the care homes, numerous children made allegations against him, accusing him of raping them and photographing them, among other offenses, but they were continually dismissed. In the end, he was sentenced to two and a half years in prison.
After this man's conviction, it was decided not to look any further into what exactly had been taking place in Lambeth, but the abuse allegations did not stop. In nineteen ninety nine, a second investigation was carried out by the police, which this time resulted in five more arrests, including a second arrest for the man convicted in nineteen ninety two. He was convicted again and sentenced to only another eighteen months, while a second man was charged and sentenced to ten
years is in prison. One of those accused killed himself before the conclusion of his trial, another had the charges dropped when it was decided there was not enough evidence to pursue with the case, while the last was also facing a charge for firearms offenses at the time he was accused of indecent assault. When he pled guilty to the firearms offenses, it was decided that would be sufficient
and the indecent assault charges were discontinued. In the end, it wouldn't be until twenty twenty one that the full scale of what had been going on was finally uncovered. An independent inquiry into child sexual abuse found more than seven hundred allegations against Lambeth Council care home staff from at least three separate homes, with the true extent of
the abuse thought to be even higher. It was also disclosed in the report that during Operation Belle it was discovered that the man, first convicted in nineteen ninety two, had made a film showing the abuse of a child in the care of Lambeth Council. Concerns have endured that he was involved in the large scale production of pornography and in decent images of children, and that other staff
from Lambeth Council may have been involved. The report also recommended that police launch an investigation into the death of a boy found dead in a bathroom at Lambeth's Shirley Oaks care home in nineteen seventy seven. At the time, staff at the care home neglected to tell the coroner that the boy had accused one of the staff of
sexually abusing him shortly before he died. The children in the care home were overwhelmingly black, and it is thought that racism played a significant part in their stories being dismissed and in the minds and actions of their abusers. If you enjoy Unexplained and would like to help support us, you can now do so via Patreon. To receive access to add free episodes, just go to patron dot com
forward slash Unexplained Pod to sign up. Unexplained the book and audiobook featuring ten stories that have never before been covered on the show. Is now available to buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain smith. Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts or ideas
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