Walking Dead actress who suffered years of abuse at children's homes says care system 'still not fit for purpose'

'If we continue to privatise children's homes or any aspect of care of other people and we monetise it, it becomes a very dangerous game,' says Samantha Morton, who grew up in Nottinghamshire care homes

Morton, pictured while starring in 'I Am... Kirsty', said that despite apologies from several public bodies, she did not feel justice had been done (Channel 4)

A Bafta-winning actress who suffered years of abuse at a children’s home in Nottingham has said the care system is “still not fit for purpose” despite the publication of a major inquiry into historical abuse in the city.

Samantha Morton, who has starred in a number of films and TV shows such as The Walking Dead and Minority Report, told the BBC that despite apologies from several public bodies, she did not feel justice had been done.

The 42-year-old previously revealed that she was a victim of abuse while growing up in Nottinghamshire care homes during the 1980s, an experience she described as being “equivalent to hell”.

In July, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) found hundreds of children were abused by predatory foster carers and residential home staff in the city and county over the past five decades due to repeated failures to learn from mistakes.

Some 350 people alleged they were abused while in residential or foster care in the county from the 1960s onwards, but the report said the true number of victims was “likely to be considerably higher”.

Morton said many of her friends who had also suffered abuse at the Nottinghamshire care homes had since lost their lives to drug overdoses, suicide and mental health issues.

She added: ”The system still isn't fit for purpose. If we continue to privatise children's homes or any aspect of care of other people and we monetise it, it becomes a very dangerous game.“

On first speaking out about the abuse she suffered to the Guardian in 2014, Morton, who was put into care as a baby, said she had told social workers about “all sorts of sexual abuse that happened to me from a very, very young age”, but that no action had ever been taken.

She continued: “There was no support, no offer of counselling, no wanting to delve deeper ... Maybe they just assumed I had been abused already, or was being, anyway.”

Nottinghamshire County Council accepted the findings of the July report and said it had also taken “a number of actions to ensure survivors of non-recent abuse received the right support”.

Nottinghamshire Police meanwhile said it had learned “many lessons over the years and during the course of the inquiry”, improving how it responded to reports of abuse and supported those affected.