Eight men quizzed by police probing claims of abuse at care home after calls for investigation by Lemn Sissay

Eight men have been questioned by police investigating claims of abuse at a children’s care home attended by the poet Lemn Sissay.

The men spoken to by detectives are all believed to have worked as carers at the Wood End Assessment Centre in Atherton, near Wigan, between the 1970s and 1990s.

They were not arrested but interviewed under caution over claims of abuse made by former residents. Most of the complaints are of physical assaults but there are also some claims of sexual abuse.

Detectives have now passed a file to the Crown Prosecution Service for prosecutors to decide if any charges should be brought relating to the investigation.

Mr Sissay, 48, who was elected Chancellor of the University of Manchester earlier this year, was a teenager in the care system when he spent nearly a year at Wood End in 1984.

He has publicly denounced the regime and conditions at the centre and led calls for an investigation via articles on his blog and social media accounts.

Ten years ago he made a BBC TV documentary in which he discussed his experience at Wood End and he has written extensively about his time at the centre.