It’s a grim sort of satisfaction but the revelations regarding the sexual abuse record of people like Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter give the lie to one popular myth: that child sexual abuse was a crime peculiar to members of the celibate clergy in the Catholic Church. There are now suggestions that child sexual abuse may have been endemic in Westminster and deliberately covered up by the Metropolitan police because it involved senior political figures. And we already know that a child is more likely to be abused by a member of his/her own family than anyone else. And then there’s Kincora.
All of this, with the possible exception of the family area, has been given extensive coverage in the media. What hasn’t been given nearly so much coverage are those cases where the accusations is shown to be false.
In today’s Guardian, Kevin Rawlinson looks at this area within British schools. He found that one in five school staff has had a false allegation made against them by a pupil. A further 7% have faced untrue claims from a student’s family member or parent. The situation is so stressful for some teachers that they cite it as a primary reason for considering leaving the profession. An experienced teacher told the Association of Teachers and Lecturers that she felt vulnerable as pupils “twist things that are said”. Another teacher said her husband left the profession “a broken man” after false allegations had been made against him. The ATL says false allegations are blighting teachers’ careers and putting added stress on those working in the education field. Asked what happened as a result of the most recent allegation they faces, around half of those who responded said the claim had been dismissed. A branch secretary of the ATL in Cornwall is quoted as saying: “Even if the allegation is shown to be false it leaves a lasting scar.”
Compare this with the reporting of high profile child sexual abuse cases here. The media – and in some cases politicians – act as though an allegation is the same thing as a verdict of guilty. Politicians use the allegations to express their admiration for those who come forward with these allegations, commending their courage and expressing sympathy with the horrors which they have allegedly endured.
None of this should lead us to forget for a moment that there are hundreds, maybe thousands of helpless children who were subjected to the most vile sexual abuse by adult predators. But in our anxiety to show solidarity with those who have been abused, we must not fall into the trap of acting as though any and all allegations are proven. As the ATL survey shows, a considerable number are false. The mainstream media should have the courage to report these cases as well as genuine cases of abuse. They should also make clear the difference between an allegation and a proven case. If they don’t, the lives of teachers and others may be destroyed beyond repair.
Here’s the link to the Guardian article: http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/mar/30/one-in-five-school-staff-victims-of-false-claims-survey-shows
I agree Jude; any and all false allegations should be perused with all the vigour the law can muster.
Now let’s see if there is as much desire to find out about any paedophile deviants in this scheme. With all these OTR letters knocking about, has anyone thought to asked did any of the shinners/provos who were involved in child sex abuse and where moved out of the jurisdiction by the shinners/provos. Did any of this schemes participants get a sexual deviant get out of jail letters?
Now there’s a story for this Easter week.
Dear Glen, I think one thing we can be sure of . . . . If anyone from the republican persuasion is even remotely envolved ,or, accused of sexual abuse. Then, there will be no corner for them to hide. And I’m talking about before they have even been tried in a court of law. Also, could you please explain how the ” get out of jail letters” work ? Like the bible says ” don’t look at the toothpick in your neighbours eye and ignore the log in your own eye”. Just sticking with your Easter-week theme.
“With all these OTR letters knocking about, has anyone thought to asked did any of the shinners/provos who were involved in child sex abuse and where moved out of the jurisdiction by the shinners/provos. Did any of this schemes participants get a sexual deviant get out of jail letters? ”
Glenn, republicans got OTR letters because Tony Blair/Jonathan Powell said that in 2006 they were “seriously frightened” of the IRA returning to war because over 200 On The Run Republicans weren’t getting what they were promised, which was to safely return home. It has absolutely nothing to do with child abuse. If any republican was engaged in abuse of any kind then they should be dealt with. You may be referring to allegations by Mairia Cahill but you conveniently forgot to mention (as does the media) that IRA Commanders investigated her claims and were even going to execute one of the men she accused of raping her, they didn’t because she asked them not to. Last time I looked that wasn’t protecting abusers. The IRA also knew that abusers could be used as informers by the British Government, which was why many were removed.
If your interested in systematic child abuse Glenn, you should focus on Kincorra and Westminster. Kincorra was deliberately used as a paedophile brothel by Unionist politicians, Loyalist paramilitaries, etc Kids from a protestant orphanage were even took to Westminster to be molested by MP’s and senior members of MI5/MI6. It was all systematic. It went back decades. There is even evidence that children were murdered in order to protect politicians and other abusers. Loyalists were even blackmailed and allowed to continue raping children by MI5. Even in recent years there’s numerous articles of Loyalists being convicted of child abuse. There’s a reason why many UDA/UVF members have holiday homes in Thailand, you know….
I understand that might not interest you Glenn because there is no republicans involved…..
Down here in the Free Southern Stateen, Esteemed Blogmeister, there is a litany of sorts to which are added the following trimmings.
( Note: for most effect, must be recited in a keeling position , rosary beads draped around the calloused fingers, deal kitchen chairs arranged in a circle, familiar familial faces to the wall,, f.f. bottoms to the centre of the stonepaved floor. Tone of preference: a drone).
-Giver out: Laurel. Communal response: Hardy.
Giver out: Foster Communal response: Allen.
Giver out: Mayo Communal response: God help us.
Giver out: Jack Hughes Communal response: Dreyfus and/ or Zola.
Giver out: AVOCA Communal response: Catholic clergy. *
(* This is the old rubric; the last response mentioned here has since been updated and ‘Catholic clergy’ has been duly replaced by ‘IRA/ Sinn Fein for reasons which will soon become clear, hopefully).
AVOCA, of course, stands for A Victim of Child Abuse and is the signature tune of choice of the same-sex Daughters of the Dworkin Class even as they gather round the revered statue of Uncle Tom Moore in College Green in the four dimensional 4D. (Downtown Dear old Dirty Dublin) .
There is a back story to this cautionary tableau. The Land of Ire is pockmarked with rocks the length and b. of the island: Mass Rocks. These are the geological punctuation points which used to remind the young, the brainwashed and the slow-learner alike that these were the altered altar pieces of the Catholic clergy. Having been ‘hounded’ there by the Penal Laws (allegedly)..
Nowadays – and not before time ! – the focus has shifted from the theological and back to where it always belonged, the geological.
We, the children of this West British world are wiser now in our generation than the children of light years ago. We, in the enlightened Land of BOD today,now know that The Penal Laws had nothing at all to do with correctional matters pertaining to locks, keys, chains, walls and bars. Rather did the world Penal refer to something more (or less) than that, much more (or less) than that.
There is much to celebrate in this, the demise of the celibate. And the kept media must put aside their innate modesty and take a bow.. Never was public or public praise more deserved. For we, the ignorant consumers of the media,both broadcast and paperbasd, will be forever in their debt, from RTE to TUT to ID.
Their revelations did not consist so much of a single act of contrition but rather an attritional decade of investigative and highly justifiable distortion (3 % of perpetrators get their deserved 97 % of publicity)
Not so much a single light bulb moment but rather a whole avenue wide, wall to wall neon illuminated Times Square or Ginza style itself..
First to fall were the Christian Brothers, soon to be like those other bros, the Brontosauruses, a thing of the past. Consigned to the bosca bruscair of An AimsirChaite..From the east of the Artanee Boys Band to the West of Letterfrack, these collared and soutaned beasts stalked the land. Small surprise that ‘fracking’ has become the dirty word it is today.
Skipping nimbly over the Fee Paying, Egg-chasing colleges, those bastions of the SJs the Viincentians ,and the Holy Ghosts,oops, the Spiritans (after all, the Artane Boys Band never played at Landsdowne !) the searchlight of self-righteousness next turned on the diocesan priests of the Roman Catholic Church (nee Catholic Church).
Having done a number there (when is the last time a priest qua priest was spotted in clerical garb saying hi ! on the High Street ?) the gung ho ho ho media next adopted the missionary position. And trained their all-conquering sights in the direction of the Dark Continent. Made all the darker by the shadowy presence of (gulp) ;purveyors of pin-pricked cardboard charts in aid of the Black Babies.
-Dr. Livingstone, I presume?
-Sorry ! Wrong answer. You have just forfeited, RTE, the right to claim the prize for the 64 dollar question.
This somewhat devastating slur of their invincibility was followed a sullen period of reluctant silence from the Watchdogs of Donnybrook, Dublin 4. There was a million reasons for doing so. As their supplies of PAL and Pedigree and Frosty Paws were rationed. Not forgetting, Bonio (no relation).
This lull happened to coincide with the era (ongoing) of the Mediohphile,from J. Saville to G. Glitter to R. Harris. Oddly enough, a different approach was adopted by the fearless Irish hackitariat in this instance.
Gone were the broom-handle wall-paper brushes which so suited the Catholic clergy of all hues, provided it was black. (SJs sported 50 shades of grey when it was neither profitable nor p.).In its place was taken up the fine, finger-nail brush which delicately distinguished each errant individual of mediophilia and distanced them from the generality of the good guys and gals in radio and TV land we all know and. admire so much.
But still, old habits die,erm, hard. And the hankering after the old broom-handle wall-paper paster on brush stil lingered. Watchdogs of Democracy and other deniszens of the Fourth Estate lay awake (allegedly) at night day dreaming of the sheer scope and indiscriminate sweep of the brush.
And then, the light bulb moment, involving the Sleepless Beauty herself.
The rest is hystery. The vacuum left by the redundant Catholic clergy has now been more than adequately filled by the sinners of Sinn Fein. The script is still the same, (including the moving of one offender to another diocese/ command area), the broadest of broad brush strokes roughly similar,
Still, one must count one’s blessings in this vale of tears, the sour-tasting Vale of AVOCA.., With the final imprisonment of Gary Glitter and the ceremonial throwing away of the relevant key of B flat, the likelihood of THE worst GAA chant in the history of that association being revived has now probably receded. Based as it was on a Glittering Anthem.
-Come on,Ty-rone ! Come on Ty-rone ! Come on !
It was so dire it made even the chant once formulated by Edmund Spenser during his spell as underlord to the overlord of Her Majesty in Ireland. He was contemplating the best way to subdue the Bolshie Hugh O’Neill at the time:
-Tyrone, Tyre all.
And he probably hadn’t got Gary of the Glitterati in mind when he penned ‘The Fairie Queen’ ,his most celebrated opus.
-Come on, Ty-rone, Come on, Ty-rone, ! Come on !
It was noticable that Tryone went on win eff-all during the height/ depth of that excruciating chant. Even the magical white boots of Frank McGuigan were incapable of overcoming this handicap.
Moser, can you explain “If anyone from the republican persuasion is even remotely involved, or, accused of sexual abuse. Then, there will be no corner for them to hide”.
Let’s look at the facts of the matter, Sinn Fein/IRA have been less than forthright in forwarding names and address for the PSNI, Garda or other law enforcement organization’s on this matter, so they can apprehend these sexual deviants at the earliest opportunity.
Anyone with any credibility at this stage can hardly claim that the shinners/provos have left “no corner for them to hide”. I would suggest their actions and the evidence (and their actions and admissions in the alleged anonymous note of names left in Gerry Adams letter box, by a person or persons unknown), would suggest the opposite. When we see arrests and convictions we will see the validity of your claim “If anyone from the republican persuasion is even remotely involved, or, accused of sexual abuse. Then, there will be no corner for them to hide”.
To all decent people the shinners/provos are reverting to type, keeping their deviancy hidden. Just like the Roman Catholic church whom the shinners/provos, so publicly castigated and called for arrests.
Unfortunately for you ‘facts’ are rather thin on the ground at the moment. There have been a few allegations but for various reasons none have been tested in court. The point of the article is that there were paedophile rings happening at the centre of many British institutions. Given their very own get out of jail cards one can only speculate at the extent of such abuse perpetuated by the British Army. One wonders why you tried to take the story off on a tangent almost immediately?
Glen, so we are only talking about shinners/provos and the Catholic church ? I never claimed that the ‘ shinners/provos” would leave no corner for sex abusers to hide. Are you suggesting that these abusers that you are referring to are hiding in plain sight ? I must say: I am touched by your concern for sex abuse victims. Guess if you just avoid shinners/provos and the Catholic church, then you will be safe. You havn’t answered my question on the on the run letters .
“It’s a grim sort of satisfaction but the revelations regarding the sexual abuse record of people like Jimmy Savile, Rolf Harris and Gary Glitter give the lie to one popular myth: that child sexual abuse was a crime peculiar to members of the celibate clergy in the Catholic Church”
Pope Francis recently said maybe 5% of the entire Priesthood (1 in 20 priests) were sexual predators. I read articles before about sexual abuse in Protestant and Islamic Churches, where the articles spoke of how sexual abuse is rampant and how its being covered up. But why is the Catholic Church often quoted when sexual abuse is brought up and not other religions/Churches? Well it can often be due to anti-Catholicism. Paisley himself use to refer to paedophile priests in his crude speeches at rallies but he kept the fact he was told at least 7 times about Kincorra pretty quiet. I have heard many rumours about Paisley himself and other Unionist leaders (including the late James Molyneaux) but rumours is all they remain, for now anyway, until a journalist with courage investigates and finds out the facts.
Abusers, regardless of where they come from, the Catholic Church, Protestant Churches, Islamic Mosques, etc should all be charged and prosecuted. I’m not very Pro-Death Penalty but there are a few cases where it may be right and child abuse is one of them.
“There are now suggestions that child sexual abuse may have been endemic in Westminster and deliberately covered up by the Metropolitan police because it involved senior political figures”
Its more than mere suggestion, there’s plenty of evidence to prove paedophile groups were (are?) active in Westminster. “PIE”, Paedophile Information Exchange, was an organisation that sought the support of many MP’s and powerful figures to get the age of consent lowered to 10 years, they originally wanted it lowered to 8 years of age. PIE got the secret support of many MP’s and powerful figures, many of them paedophiles themselves.
Many Celebrities, MP’s, MI6/MI5 officials, etc were all supportive of PIE and collectively tried to work towards lowering the age of consent. Jimmy Savile is maybe the most notorious celebrity paedophile but there were many others, some of them brought to Justice (Gary Glitter, Rolf Harris, etc) but many of them are still free today. When you hear some celebrities/journalists say that they “never knew” about Jimmy Saviles sick practices, don’t believe them, they are liars. Nearly everyone who worked with Savile admit they heard “rumours” but the reality is they turned a blind eye or at the worst were up to the same stuff as Savile was.
My own opinion on the paedophile gangs at Westminster (and Kincorra) is that it was all run by extremely powerful people who were not only above the Law but WERE the Law itself. They could do whatever they wanted and they did. These sick cretins went after children to molest and destroy. Molesting any child is very wrong but to molest vulnerable children such as orphans just makes it worse. Now these people who are seeking Justice most likely will never get it, how could they? they are asking for Justice from the very same people who abused them……