A VICAR who knew the Spry family in the 1990s has revealed he told the authorities about his concerns for the children's educational welfare.

The Rev Peter Thomas, vicar of Eckington from 1992 to 2005, believes Eunice Spry got away with neglecting the children's education because she flitted between Tewkesbury, which was under Gloucestershire Local Education Authority and Eckington, under the then Hereford and Worcester LEA.

Mr Thomas voiced his concerns to Hereford and Worcester LEA at the beginning of 1995, about Spry's intent to home tutor the children in her care.

"I wasn't confident of her competence to do that but she said she was in touch with Gloucestershire and Hereford & Worcester LEAs and always maintained they gave her a clean bill of health for providing such education," he said.

Despite her assurances that she could teach the children to GCSE level, Mr Thomas said he was doubtful because she had also admitted she was using school books bought at a jumble sale.

He said he received a letter in response to his query from an education welfare officer from the then Hereford and Worcester County Council who had visited Spry's Eckington home.

It read: "I was not made welcome. She spoke to me through a small slit in the door."

The letter said Spry had told the officer she was having annual inspections from Gloucestershire County Council and the previous one had been in October 1994 when inspectors were pleased with her progress.

Mr Thomas said: "I don't know what the outcome was but she (the officer) was asking Hereford and Worcester to liaise with Gloucestershire about it.

"She (Spry) lived in both Tewkesbury and Eckington so she was playing one off against the other. She would say someone else was handling it.

"Both imagined the other authority was taking more interest than they were." Mr Thomas said he met Spry and her children when he visited John Drake, the owner of what would later become their home in Eckington and whom Spry cared for until he died in 1994.

After Mr Drake's death, Mr Thomas said Spry became reluctant to let anyone into the house and had curtains drawn at all times.

He said: "Sometimes she would answer the door but after the first couple of months when she lived here I was never admitted into the house.

"I never saw evidence of the children being physically maltreated but it wasn't long after they moved in the sheets went up and we couldn't see much of them."

Mr Thomas added: "All the time people will say we are going to learn lessons but you get the sense they haven't learnt lessons.

"Or perhaps somebody has been able to be clever and manipulative."

A statement issued by Worcestershire County Council could not confirm what action, if any, was taken in response to Mr Thomas's concerns or whether Hereford and Worcester officers liaised with Gloucestershire. The council's director of children's services, Richard Hubbard, said: "In 1995, there was a completely different local authority in place, Hereford and Worcester, with different policies and procedures.

"There would not have been a requirement to keep records of single education welfare visits over a long period, making it now impossible to identify actions in respect of this case.

"The normal process, even then, would have been to refer any concerns to Gloucestershire County Council's social services, who had responsibility for the children in placement, if the authority had been notified of this.

"Since its inception in 1998, Worcestershire County Council has always had the protection of children as a top priority and has been praised for its robust arrangements.

"It is possible that Gloucestershire County Council will conduct a review of what occurred in this regrettable case, and we would, of course, want to co-operate fully with any such review and would certainly want to consider any learning from that."