She was sacked when she refused to agree to the new conditions of employment.Miss Thomas told an industrial tribunal in Southampton that Mr Hooper was often sexist, abusive and intimidating.She said the manager, who suffered from irritable bowel syndrome, went into graphic detail about an exploratory operation on his bowels. Cathy Thomas, of Rustington, West Sussex, claimed production manager Philip Hooper said women were only good for one thing and should "go home and do the ironing". Miss Thomas, 25, was dismissed last September from polystyrene manufacturers Styropack, in Littlehampton. Bosses at the factory claimed she was too stressed to cope with her job as deputy team leader and tried to cut her pay. The offences of shameless indecency included having sex with some of them. Lord Weir deferred sentenced for background reports until 9 April at the High Court in Edinburgh.. A woman supervisor told an industrial tribunal she was sacked after she complained that her boss had told her of his sexual fantasies about a colleague. Harley, of 560B Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff, admitted seventeen charges involving 16 boys.
The boys, aged from six to 16, were under the total control of Peter Harley, whose reign of terror lasted five years. Some arrived weeping after being torn from their mothers and sought comfort from Harley. Instead, they were sexually abused, Valerie Stacey, prosecuting, told the High Court in Glasgow. The children were too terrified to tell anyone, and did not think they would be believed anyway, she said. Some fled but were brought back by Harley, 50, to the local-authority Merkland Children's Home, Moffat, Dumfriesshire. Mrs Stacey said that years later, some of the victims, now married with families, still had nightmares and could not form proper relationships.The offences came to light when one boy told his girlfriend and social workers and the police were called in. Sixteen boys went through a nightmare of abuse, trapped in a children's home run by a paedophile, a court heard yesterday.
It added that the present management has made improvements.The two homes, Stoke Place and Stoke Green, are now run by Mr Rowe's son, Nigel, who was unavailable for comment yesterday.Detective Superintendent Jon Bound, who led the investigation, said yesterday: "More than 12 people were investigated during the inquiry. I anticipate in the next few weeks we will be taking action as a result of the wide-ranging allegations of sexual and physical abuse and ill-treatment."A spokesman from Buckinghamshire council, said that the police investigations resulted from information obtained by the council's social services department. He added that the council had acted in the best interests of the home's residents at all time.. Mr Rowe has had a total of 40 allegations of assault levelled at him by 13 people.The police have been investigating about a dozen people who worked at the homes, run by the company, Longcare, while Mr Rowe was in charge. Several people are expected to be charged in the next few weeks. The families of at least four former residents are trying to sue for damages for the severe traumatic stress they claimed to have suffered from their alleged abuse at the homes up to 1993.A confidential report by Buckinghamshire County Council, which was leaked to the Independent in 1994, contained allegations which, if substantiated, would amount to one of the worst residential care scandals since systematic child sex abuse was discovered in Leicestershire homes in 1991.It alleged that men and women at the homes were raped, forced to eat outside and locked in their rooms - sometimes for days at a time.The document, compiled by the council's social services inspection unit, reported that one man suffered severe anal bleeding for days before he was taken to a doctor.The inspectors' report, which was passed to the police, concluded that residents were "continually subjected to a catalogue of abuse, deprivation, humiliation and torment"'.Among further allegations made against Gordon Rowe were that in 1992 staff saw him kick a young man, who had the mental age of a child, in the stomach; force-feed a 47-year-old woman suffering from Down's syndrome; and hose down with freezing water in mid-winter a 39-year-old man who had incontinence.Buckinghamshire County Council's report on the allegations was completed in June 1994 but the council's social services department kept its findings confidential.They agreed to let the homes remain open, providing that Mr Rowe severed all ties with them. His body was found in a car in Crowthorne, Berkshire, early on Monday morning.