THE police investigation into abuse at a North Yorkshire children's home has been attacked by a campaign group, following the conviction of a former carer.

Anver Daud Sheikh was jailed last week after a jury found him guilty of two indecent assaults and two serious sexual offences against youngsters at St Camillus residential school at Scarthingwell, near Tadcaster.

It was the second time he had been tried on the charges, having originally been convicted by a different jury in 2002. The Court of Appeal quashed that conviction and ordered a re-trial.

Now a newsletter published by the national pressure group FACTION (Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers Information Opinion and News) has criticised the police investigation, verdict and justice system.

Headlined No Justice For Anver Sheikh, the newsletter claims there was no evidence other than the testimony of the two men who had made the allegations against him.

It says Sheikh was unable to produce an adequate defence.

"Like countless other care workers trapped by similar retrospective allegations, all he could say was that the offences alleged against him had never happened. The jury, faced by two highly prejudicial complaints, declined to believe him."

Solicitor Mark Newby is quoted as claiming that North Yorkshire Police had failed to investigate the abuse allegations by former residents impartially.

He said: "This is a very grave and fundamental error by the police, and we will be calling for a thorough review of how the investigation took place."

FACTION says the trials had cost the British taxpayer hundreds of thousands of pounds and cost Sheikh untold misery and years in jail, after being condemned by a "corrupted system" which had allowed police to leave aside traditional methods of gathering evidence of a crime, and instead gather allegations and use them as evidence to gain convictions.

"Shame on them, and shame on the politicians who made the laws which allow these miscarriages of justice and who fail to address them to this day," says FACTION.

A North Yorkshire Police spokesman said: "We feel that two juries have heard the evidence, and both reached the same conclusions, and that speaks for itself."

Updated: 08:49 Monday, January 31, 2005