Inspector Vaughn was an Inspector for the N.S.P.C.C who called on Betty Turpin in August 1980 when she reported two children who were near-neighbours in Hillside Crescent, Sharon and Wayne Fletcher, for neglect. Their mother had separated from her husband some years before and she had recently taken in a new boyfriend, Reg Sudworth. Betty saw a bruise on Sharon and noticed that the children were playing out late well after their usual bedtime, were shut out of the house all day and were not being fed. After being pushed by Ken Barlow to report that matter, Betty did so but told Vaughn that she was worried that the children would be taken into care as a result of her complaint. He assured her few cases went to court and less than 2% of those resulted in care orders. He agreed that best place for children was with their mother and that they would be keeping a close eye on the situation. If the problem was caused by Sudworth, they were usually “fly by night” types who lasted two or three months and were off again with someone else.
When the investigation began, Sudworth rounded on Betty and threatened her but he was seen off by Mike Baldwin and Eddie Yeats. He fled Hillside Crescent causing Betty to wonder if she had done the right thing. Vaughn called on her again and said that with if the children were reasonably happy before Sudworth moved in, there was no reason why they shouldn’t continue to be so now that he’d moved out and that they would continue to monitor the situation. Betty pondered that he might have left even if she hadn’t made her complaint but Vaughn disagreed, telling her that these things only escalated if they weren’t nipped in the bud and that she should be proud of what she had done.