Whistleblower 'horrified' that no action was taken over fears wife of paedophile Douglas Barr was working with kids

A WHISTLEBLOWER contacted police a month ago about fears the wife of Scots paedophile Douglas Barr was working with kids.

The shocked woman, who did not want to be named, was “absolutely horrified” no action was taken after she reported that Julie Barr, 56, had been convicted of cruelty towards her victims on the Greek island of Crete.

She warned them that Barr, a trained nurse, may be working with kids or vulnerable adults in the UK.

The Sunday Post revealed last week Julie Barr, whose Dundee-born husband was jailed for torturing and sexually abusing children, had been sentenced to a 12-month jail term but fled back to Britain.

Our team of reporters tracked her down to her place of work – a dance school in Leeds for children as young as five. Bosses sacked her on the spot after we revealed her crimes.

But it has now emerged that the whistleblower, acting on behalf of Barr’s victims, had called police in early April to alert them to Julie Barr’s conviction – information which West Yorkshire Police failed to pass on to her employers.

Last night she said: “I was horrified. They said there was nothing they could do.

“I couldn’t have made it any clearer. I told them Julie Barr had been sentenced to a year in Greece for child cruelty and her husband Douglas had been jailed for 19 years and seven months for child sexual abuse.

“They could have phoned the British Embassy for confirmation and should have initiated child protection proceedings immediately.

“Instead, they said that they couldn’t do anything until they were alerted by the Greek authorities.”

The Northern School of Contemporary Dance, where Julie Barr was working as a receptionist, had no knowledge of her past.

Bosses carried out the correct Disclosure and Barring Service checks, which came back clear.

“It just shows how useless these checks are,” our source said. “It appears that unless the authorities are notified of a conviction from outside the UK, that person can carry on working with children. It’s scary.”

John Hemming, a former Lib Dem MP and a campaigner against child cruelty, slammed West Yorkshire Police for the serious communication breakdown.

“The British Embassy already had all the information but it seems like they couldn’t be bothered to contact them,” he said.

Last week, one of the Barrs’ victims said she was glad Julie had been sacked from her job.

She said: “She was as much a monster as her husband.”

A West Yorkshire Police spokesman said: “We are aware of concerns raised about an individual reported to have been convicted of offences overseas.”

Meanwhile, The Sunday Post has obtained emails sent by Julie Barr to the authorities claiming sick Douglas Barr attempted suicide while on remand in Greece.

The paedophile tortured his victims, kept them prisoner in the basement of his Greek villa and raped two girls.

One lawyer described him as “the literal definition of barbarity”.

Amazingly, in the email sent in February 2015 to former Cabinet Minister Ed Balls – her then MP – Mrs Barr paints her husband as a victim.

She wrote: “He is being held in barbaric conditions and has to pay for everything, even toilet paper.”

Making of a Monster: How Scot grew into ‘definition of barbarity’ after preying on children in Crete