OPERATION Rose was one of the country's biggest investigations into historic sexual and physical child abuse.

The inquiry was launched in August 1997 when a woman in her 20s disclosed to a social worker that she and a friend had been both sexually and physically abused as children while living in a children's home in the Northumbria Police area.

After a meeting between police and social services, an investigation was launched, centring on council-run care homes in the North-East and stemming from initial allegations in Newcastle and Northumberland.

Officers manning a confidential telephone line for people who were in care between the mid-1960s and mid-1980s received 23 calls in the first 24 hours, from people complaining of sexual and physical assault.

Initial inquiries revealed six victims alleging abuse by eight suspects who had worked in homes across the region going back to the 1960s.

As the inquiry continued, the number of alleged victims escalated.

In 1998, the inquiry was broadened to include renewed allegations concerning carers working at Witherwack House, Sunderland, which had been subject to an earlier investigation in 1992.

Over the full three-year life of the police investigation, almost 200 care workers were the subject of allegations and 32 were charged.

In total, 260 residents and former residents of 61 children's homes came forward to make allegations of physical and sexual assault.

Six people were eventually found guilty of a variety of charges, of which five were jailed.

Four suspects died before coming to trial.

The final trail of Esme Allenby collapsed yesterday, opening the door for Operation Rose to be reported in full.