Education Department chief executive Keith Bartley defends link to UK inquiry Education Department chief executive Keith Bartley addressing a press conference on the Debelle inquiry report. THE chief executive of the state's Education Department, Keith Bartley, faces questions over his role at a British council that is being investigated for its failures in one of the country's worst sex abuse scandals. An independent "serious case review" inquiry is being conducted into Oxfordshire County Council over how it could have better protected girls in care from a Muslim paedophile ring. Mr Bartley, who was recruited by Premier Jay Weatherill to South Australia in 2011, was the council's first Director for Children, Young People and Families during a time when the gang groomed girls as young as 11. The council has publicly apologised to the victims for not stopping the abuse earlier. A council spokesman said the terms of reference for the British inquiry - one of two reviews concerning a department that Mr Bartley has headed - had been established. Officials are still deciding which former employees will be called to give evidence. Education Minister Jennifer Rankin watches Keith Bartley address a press conference. Picture: Greg Higgs In a statement to The Advertiser last night, Mr Bartley said: "I have not yet been contacted with regard to this matter. Mr Bartley's previous employment in Britain will be raised in State Parliament today by the Opposition, two days after the Debelle inquiry into sex-abuse cases in state public schools was published. Yesterday, Education Minister Jennifer Rankine announced that a $100,000 independent review into the operations of the department would be conducted by former Victorian Education chief executive Peter Allen. Mr Bartley said: "Any attempt to link these two incidents to me is drawing (a) long bow indeed. However, given my lack of involvement in the official proceedings leading up to the recent prosecution, I can only reject as slurs and innuendo any attempts to link me to this matter. After the 280-page report from former Supreme Court Justice Bruce Debelle was published on Monday, Mr Bartley said it was "a sobering chronicle of failures at every level within the (Education) department." Mr Bartley, who fronted the media with Ms Rankine, said yesterday it was too early to say if any department staff would be sacked as a result but confirmed he had a "full range" of disciplinary measures available to him. The Debelle inquiry was published just days after members of the Oxford gang were jailed for the sexual torture of the vulnerable young girls in care. In a case that shocked Britain, the seven men, including two sets of brothers, were convicted of 43 offences including rape, trafficking and organising prostitution. The gang recruited its victims from an area about an hour north-west of London, between May 2004 and January last year, and deliberately targeted the vulnerable girls. Five of the gang's six victims were in care during their abuse. Nine out of 10 of the social workers responsible for the girls knew they were being groomed for sex, a school support worker told the trial of the men. According to his Education Department profile, Mr Bartley was head of the Oxford children's department between 2003 and 2007. Mr Bartley, originally from Northamptonshire who has 35 years' experience in education, said his "duties did not cover child welfare until the beginning of 2006." Last Thursday, Old Bailey judge Peter Rook jailed the gang for a minimum total of 95 years for crimes that included subjecting their victims to extreme physical and sexual violence. Five gang members were given life sentences and two others were jailed for seven years for "crimes of the utmost gravity," the judge said. The case has provoked anger across Britain and led to David Cameron, the Prime Minister - whose Parliamentary seat is in Oxfordshire - warning that the council and police had " searching questions" to answer. Oxfordshire council officials have said they were "deeply sorry we were not able to stop the abuse sooner." Mr Bartley said he did not have any knowledge of the British case and suggested he was the victim of a "malicious" smear campaign. Confirming he was the head of children's services during some of the time when the abuse occurred, Mr Bartley blamed unidentified "person or persons" for attempting to "attribute responsibility to me over a case of multiple sexual assaults."