"In 2015... wider society started to recognise that a climate had developed around allegations of child-sexual abuse and rape that was not conducive to fairness and impartiality .... Some observers recognised that the climate that Yewtree had created had been over the top ......There is hope on the horizon ......"

Dream on. I have been following the child abuse hysteria in Ireland for the best part of 20 years now and I have seen hope come and go, on more than one occasion. In 2003/04 there seemed to be a major change. The Gardai (police) had spent years investigating claims of child murder by the Christian Brothers in Letterfrack and Artane - including one highly publicised exhumation - and they were sick of it. There were a couple of child rape trials that ended in a fiasco for the prosecution, especially that of (former Sister of Mercy) Nora Wall AND allegations against Irish Bishops that were so crazy that even anti-clerics were embarrassed. (One writer REGRETTED that historic claims of pedophilia against Ireland's most famous churchman John Charles McQuaid, were so ludicrous that they might create sympathy for the late Archbishop). In 2003 an organisation "Let Our Voices Emerge", was founded to represent victims of false allegations of child abuse and the founder, Florence Horsman Hogan, persuaded the Christian Brothers to issue a strong statement about such allegations. Several articles appeared in Irish and UK newspapers about the victims of false claims and even the anti-clerical Irish Times wrote about a "Salem Witch-hunt".

So what happened? Well the 2003 statement was almost the last attempt by a male-dominated Irish Church to stand up for itself. In the mid 1990s the Bishops had successfully threatened to sue the UK Guardian and TV3 for libel and forced both to apologise, but 10 years later the male establishment was giving way to female leadership who more or less took over the Conference of Religious Superiors. The nuns were very conscious of the "pain" felt by people making allegations of child abuse - especially the Sisters of Mercy who took the view that even those who made transparently false claims (including child murder), must have suffered deeply to cause them to act thus. Therefore the proper Christian response was to apologise to such accusers, in order to "heal their pain".

In 2004 the nuns issued their FOURTH apology, in which they made it clear that they unhesitatingly accepted the bona fides of all their accusers. The roof then fell in. One journalist ,who had been writing about false allegations, decided that the Religious were imbeciles and represented no threat; so he reverted to his previous anti-clerical stance. (So I was told by someone who knew him). Other journalists followed suit. Also in 2004 a new Archbishop of Dublin was appointed who took the same stance as the nuns etc.

How much of this is relevant to the UK? Well maybe the rise of female leaders, the feminization of their male counterparts, the glorification of "victims" and the idea that, even their lies are the product of some real suffering at the hands of the male patriarchy??

Anyway I wouldn't be too hopeful about any major changes in 2016 - in Ireland or the UK!

I hear what your saying- these things come & go in waves. But like the ebb tide, the overall trend is receding.

At the end of the day, if the bastards are reduced to pinning accusations on the dead, so be it. You can say I molested 10,000 kids when I'm in my grave for all it will bother me. I know it hurts, but we need more of the deceased family members to come out and openly ridicule complainants' claims- that will hurt them more than anything.

I hope you are correct and possibly you are, in relation to the UK. I have seen many signs of hope appear in Ireland over the years - and be crushed not only by thuggish journalists and politicians, but also by the decadence of some Church leaders - mainly nuns but at least two bishops also.

The current position here, is that the Sisters of Mercy are well aware that their strategy of apologizing to false accusers (in order to heal their pain) has been a catastrophic failure. However they have gutted their credibility and their morale to such an extent that they are LITERALLY beyond redemption. The former male leaders of the Church - both Bishops and Religious superiors - had put up a reasonable fight. I would have preferred them to have done more, but they MIGHT have succeeded if their efforts had not been sabotaged by "liberal" nuns who thought they were transcending ideals like truth and justice, when they were actually perverting them in the name of a bogus "Christian charity". The male leaders have now run out of steam and a couple have copied the nuns in supporting false allegations against their own colleagues. The latter includes the current Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin!
http://www.irishsalem.com/i...

Therefore I am VERY cynical about the possibility of any improvement in Ireland - but perhaps the future is brighter in the UK!

"...their strategy of apologizing to false accusers (in order to heal their pain) has been a catastrophic failure"

And that's key. In the wake of Savile, some (like Stuart Hall) were persuaded to 'confess' in order to assist in the 'healing' process. It's now clear that there is absolutely zero benefit to doing this for the accused- Hall even had his 'unduly lenient' sentence increased after conviction! Once people stand and fight, the emptiness of the Emperor's wardrobe will be revealed...

On the basis of my experience in Ireland, I would suggest that one useful strategy is to constantly remind people that some very serious allegations of child abuse are OBVIOUSLY false. Remember the six months of media (and police) hysteria in 2008 about supposed bodies of murdered children at the residential home on Jersey - all sparked off by the discovery of part of a "child's skull" that turned out to be the fragment of a coconut shell! That lunacy has fallen completely out of public consciousness. If even the police had remembered it, they might not have been so keen to believe the recent allegations about Tory MPs murdering five children. As at Haut de la Garenne in Jersey, no names of missing murdered children were even mentioned in relation to the Westminster "scandal". I coined the phrases "Murder of the Undead" and "Victimless Murders" to describe similar claims in Ireland.

I would say that in Ireland, THIS specific kind of lunacy is practically finished - there have been hardly any such allegations since about 2010. The CHIEF reason is that the Gardai (police) are absolutely sick of the hysteria and the associated waste of police time but I hope that my own one-man-campaign had some influence. Is there anyone who could persuade Irish and UK security representatives to get together for a discussion on this subject? I don't think the Gardai will take the lead as it's something of a sore point for them. Are there any open-minded UK top cops who might request advise from their former colonial subjects?? We CAN assist you in your enquiries!

In all this child abuse hysteria, we seem to have forgotten the Cleveland scandal of the late 1980s, when Dr Marietta Higgs and Dr Geoffrey Wyatt removed 121 children from their parents on their diagnosis of rape made on the basis of their 'anal dilation' test. Had they not been fanatics like one of the more conspicuous posters on this thread, they might have troubled themselves to try their test on all children: on this basis, every child in the world would have been raped. We have had similar examples in the Orkneys and Rochdale where social workers and medical personnel were quite frankly deranged, and used the most unscrupulous means to get 'evidence' of abuse.

I once accompanied a single father to hospital--his 4-yr-old son had been with us when we stopped off for a pint. The boy fell off a bar stool and got a severe nose bleed. The father was reluctant to take him into the doctor, because he came from a working class home and he knew how he'd be received. The following day it was pretty obvious the boy's nose was broken, so he took him in to see his GP. Quite predictably, he was ordered to report to the nearest hospital, and he phoned me and asked me to go along. As I was the director of a children's charity, he hoped that they would take me word.

In fact it took a long time before I had a chance to say a word. Nurses and doctors fell upon us like vultures, making no attempt to disguise their glee at finding another 'victim'. The poor kid had his anus examined by three separate doctors--if that isn't child abuse, I'd like to know what is.

Fortunately, the registrar was a young German woman who quite clearly didn't think a lot of her colleagues. At last the father and I had a chance to say what happened. I'm glad to say that she didn't find it necessary to contact the landlord of the pub, who also witnessed the accident.

At around the same time, a friend of mine--an Army Officer--and his wife decided not to take their 9-mo-old son to a doctor after he'd got a second-degree burn. Even 'respectable' middle-class people were terrified of abuse allegations.

Long before this, my sister 'recovered' memories of child abuse and caused great distress in our family. She was so convincing that even I started to wonder if there might be something in it--until she made an allegation that could not possibly have occurred.

Of course, neither I nor anyone else has any evidence to prove how prevalent sexual abuse of children may be. This is all the more reason to let the legal system take its course--and to end the scandalous abuse of family courts, where due process is ignored, and reporting banned. When I was running the children's charity, BBC4's Children's Affairs reporter warned me to stay out of the clutches of social workers: she knew what happens when cases are tried in camera.

Courts of law are not infallible, but the only alternative is anarchy.

The late cultural historian Richard Webster suggested to me that the reason Ireland had practically no Satanic Ritual Abuse (SRA) cases was the influence of the Catholic Church and its strong opposition to Freudian ideas. The Church opposed Freudianism because of the implications for Catholic doctrines regarding sin, free will and personal responsibility. Richard Webster was an atheist (NOT of the Dawkins persuasion) but he was also a major critic of Freud and and believed that SRA was a logical development of his ideas.

Based on what Richard Webster suggested, I developed my own theory that false allegations of child murder in Ireland are our equivalent of SRA - except that in OUR case Freudian delusions are replaced by open lying. (I am thinking in particular of the cases where no child died of ANY cause during the period in question). However I don't know enough about Freud and he didn't know enough about Ireland to prove anything of the sort. It could be a useful subject for a law graduate looking for a doctoral thesis!

Incidentally the 2008 hysteria about child-killing in Jersey was possibly based on the with-hunt in Ireland re the old industrial school at Letterfrack in Co Galway. Letterfrack is as remote a location in my country as the island of Jersey is vis a vis the UK. Also the Jersey policeman largely responsible was born in Derry!

My mother was a disciple of the blessed Sigmund, and when I arrived in England in my late 20s I was relieved to find that Freud worship was a decidedly marginal enthusiasm. I never had the patience to read any of his gospels, and regarded advocates of psychoanalysis as narcissistic obsessives. However, I'm not sure how this could have developed into SRA. It's an interesting theory, and I'd be obliged if you could spell it out. I assume this entails something more than an obsessive antipathy to the church.

Sorry I can only provide some limited guidance. Richard Webster's website is still maintained by his friends and includes several of his articles on Freud.
http://www.richardwebster.net/

I find the theory behind his thesis difficult to understand. I think he is saying that modern society thought it had dispensed with the concepts of Sin, Evil and the Devil but that Freud was a kind of secular Messiah who brought them back in secular form. One of my difficulties with Webster's THEORY is that he emphasizes that Freud re-established the Christian doctrine of Original Sin. However that doctrine states that evil is a basic - although not dominant - element in human nature and that therefore we are all sinful. I would have thought that this doctrine works AGAINST the modern tendency to see child sex abusers as sub-human vermin. Evil is within us and we are not going to eradicate it by transferring our guilt and demonizing any section of humanity no matter how nasty their behaviour.

From a pragmatic point of view however, I think that Webster's theory has a lot to be said for it. Ireland is much influenced by American and British culture. Yet we had practically no trace at all of the Satanic Ritual Abuse hysteria. I can think of only one partial exception. That was in relation to the "Dalkey House of Horrors" case, where evidently real allegations of abuse were mixed up with some fantasies - including a hint of SRA.
http://www.alliancesupport....

Two psychologists today told Dublin County Coroner Dr Kieran Geraghty that they were in no doubt that Cynthia Owen had been raped and gave birth to a baby that had been murdered.

The inquest heard the 45-year-old told Dr Dawn Henderson that she had been the victim of satanic abuse and also mentioned a paedophile ring, details of which she did not want disclosed at the hearing.

The lady in question was born in Ireland but spent decades in the UK - which I think is very significant. I suspect that the absence of SRA here (and the lesser role of Recovered Memory compared to the US and UK) is due to the influence of the Catholic Church. OK this does not constitute scientific proof but I still think that it might provide a thesis for a law student to investigate.

https://youtu.be/awAeg_-mSpQ

Here we go
'The dust kicked up by Operation Yewtree, the investigation into sexual
abuse carried out by Jimmy Savile ‘and others’, began to settle this
year. '
I've given up on you Luke. If you can't be bothered to read our Savile research then I'll not be bothered to read ANY more of your C**p Happy Xmas

"Media coverage of the case led to more women coming forward to state that .... had also sexually abused them."

Asked why she was coming forward now, after all thèse years, she replied "I need a new car."

Gold-diggers and ambulance-chasers have always existed. What changes is the range of opportunities available to them. The British mainstream media long ago all fell into the gutter of circulation wars. Even Wikipedia, I note, has descended into referring to "victims" as victims, and "historical" as historical.

7,000 Child Sex Abuse Cases In UK: LBC Report

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Thursday 6th November 2014

An LBC investigation has revealed police are looking into over 7,000 cases of suspected child sexual abuse in England and Wales.

Listen: Couldn't Care Less - LBC's Hard-Hitting Investigation

In London there were more than 1,800 investigations, with West Yorkshire police investigating 1,100 allegations.

In
the major child sexual abuse cases like the ones in Rotherham,
Rochdale, Oxford and Manchester, many of the victims were in children’s
care. Tonight, LBC asks why it is that the most vulnerable children are
able to be abused.

Our documentary "Couldn't Care Less"
goes across the country, hearing from those who have been through the
care system and revealing its deep flaws: showing how children as young
as 16 are being kicked out onto the street, that thousands are running
away from the homes and many are being placed in unsuitable B&Bs.

With
more a third of children’s care homes being rated as adequate or
inadequate by Ofsted, we speak to charities and politicians all of whom
say that areas of the care system are failing children too often.

Tom
discovered one troubled area in Cliftonville in Thanet, Kent, with five
care homes sitting in the middle of a host of criminal activity.Tom
Swarbrick reports: "This is an area of high crime and high unemployment.
It's also where children are dumped. There are five care homes here,
numerous B&Bs also housing care leavers.

"Kent supports nearly
10,000 of the most vulnerable children, 1,000 of these children are in
Thanet, with more than 150 placed in these two wards - Margate Central
and Cliftonville West.

"LBC can reveal that living alongside them is an array of convicted offenders.

"I've
seen figures which show that in 2012 there were 23 prison releases
here, more than 30 people so dangerous they need to be monitored
constantly by police. There were nearly 70 home searches of arrested
persons, nearly 600 Ambulance pickups here for assaults, drug overdoses,
suicide attempts. And then chuck into that mix at least eight
persistently missing children.

"The police are trying to help, they are aware of the issues here...but is that the best we can do?"

After
months spent investigating this abuse across the UK, he concluded:
"Perhaps now we see why those children in our care are able to be abused
so badly in places like Rotherham Oxford and Rochdale. We're not
protecting them.

"The government is trying to change things: laws, more safeguards, better training for staff. But we've been here before.

"The victims of child abuse are getting their inquiry with or without a chairperson."But
this abuse is far from historical. It's happening today. In your town.
To children you are paying to protect. I know they're not your children,
but they're someone's... and we're the best they

Child Abuse: 42% Rise In Investigations

In some parts of the UK up to one in 20
children are the subject of investigations into abuse or neglect claims,
Sky News reveals.

10:13, UK,
Monday 16
December 2013

Video:
Shocking Scale Of UK Child Abuse

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By Jason Farrell, Sky News Correspondent

A Sky News investigation has revealed up to
one in 20 children in some parts of the country have been the subject
of investigations into whether they are victims of abuse or neglect.

In 2012/13 English councils launched 127,060 high-level
investigations - known as section 47s - into children thought to be at
risk, analysis of official figures shows.

That is the equivalent of one in 100 of the country's entire
population of under-18s and represents a 42.3% increase in cases since
2009/10.

In some areas the figure is much higher with the equivalent
of 4.5% of children in Blackpool, 2.6% in Doncaster and 2.1% in
Peterborough being investigated.

Experts said the significant increase in suspected abuse
cases could be explained by the heightened awareness of the issue
following the tragic case of Baby Peter Connelly in 2008.

However, they also said the impact of the recession on households had led to a marked rise in ill treatment of children.

The figures follow a series of high-profile cases of child
abuse including that of four-year-old Daniel Pelka who was starved,
tortured and brutally beaten to death by his mother and stepfather.

Daniel Pelka, four, was a victim of horrific abuse

Ray Jones, professor of social work at Kingston University,
told Sky News that economic pressures were linked to abuse and neglect.

He said: "I think we're aware of the dangers more than we
were before and I think we're more determined to act on them, but I do
think that there are some families who are getting into difficulty now
who wouldn't have got into difficulty before because of increasing
deprivation and indeed destitution."

Professor Jones warned that social services were increasingly struggling to cope.

"We have a child protection system and a care system where
the work has been increasing year on year on year for the last five
years and I really am worried about it.

"I'm worried about it because it's at the point of breakdown now, because that's at the time of public sector cuts."

In Blackpool the number of cases being investigated is more four times the national average.

Charlene Downes who went missing in 2003 is presumed dead

In 2011 it emerged that police investigating the
disappearance of 14-year-old Charlene Downes in the town had uncovered a
gang of men which had groomed 60 underage girls from the area for sex.

Her mother Karen Downes told Sky News: "I was shocked when I
first heard about it. I was absolutely disgusted. I didn't have any
knowledge at all of any girls being abused.

"We didn't even know about the darker side of Blackpool until all this with Charlene came about."

Richard Scorer, a solicitor who specialises in child abuse
cases at the Pannone law firm in Manchester, warned that many cases end
up being ignored by social services.

"Cases involving chronic neglect and physical and emotional abuse tend to fall by the wayside or tend to be ignored," he said.

"And I think the other thing that comes out is the
difficulties that social services have in monitoring and keeping track
of children who are part of a shifting population that moves in and out
of the town."

He also warned that cuts could make the situation worse.

'Julie' has an alcoholic mother and has left home several times as a result

"I think this is one of these examples of a situation where
we have to decide as a society if we want to take child abuse seriously
and we want to deal with it properly then we have to make sure social
workers and others have the resources to deal with it properly," he
said.

Sky News met several teenage girls in Blackpool who are sleeping rough and refusing to return home.

"Emma", 17, said she had been on the streets since she was 15 and "has her reasons" why she can't go home.

She sleeps in what are known as 20p hotels - toilet cubicles you pay to use.

"It's cold, it's cold as hell. You can like put your bags
against the door to stop the draught coming in, but the floor gets so
cold," she said.

"And it's scary as well, like every time you hear people go past shouting and that in case they come in or whatever."

"Julie", 18 said she started sleeping rough after an argument with her alcoholic mother when she was 17.

She claimed she was smoking aged seven, drinking by 11 and smoking crack by the time she was 13.

She also alleged that she was raped by a man who pretended to be her friend and took her in for the night.

"I used to turn up to my lessons under the influence. I used
to snort cocaine off my religious studies book right in front of the
teacher. I just didn't care," she said.

"(Teachers) always had meetings with my social workers. They
just tried to take me away, and then every time they took me away, my
mum went to rehab, and then she got clean for a few weeks.

"Then I went back to her, then it all went back downhill again and it just kept repeating itself."

:: Watch Sky News live on television, on Sky channel 501, Virgin Media channel 602, Freeview channel 82 and Freesat channel 202.

I need further thought on Julies situation.....but I can tell you this....alcoholics are given a subsistence dependency scheme.....thus junkies, alcoholics and society need a more effective system in dealing with these issues.
Julies case also highlight economic macroeconomics at local levels.
Stop buying from China for a start.
But that, in itself leads to requiring EU and national economic responses.
Time for bed.

O'Brien accused of 'betraying' abuse victimsn Former mayor 'hurt by vindictive attack'

Updated on the

20
May
2010
11:20

Published 19/05/2010 11:04

Print this

A former mayor of Clonmel has been accused of a 'massive
betrayal' of 16,000 victims of abuse for 'exalting and eulogising' the
Rosminian Order for years

This week Christine Buckley, a Goldenbridge survivor,
hit out at the behaviour of former Ferryhouse resident Michael O'Brien
describing him as a 'perpetual apologist' for the Rosminians.

She
went public after being handed a decade old radio interview by the
former mayor and an anonymous letter from a person calling themselves
'whistle blower' referencing articles in The Nationalist in which the
former member of Clonmel Corporation paid tributes to the Rosminians.

In
an interview with 'The Nationalist' following a clash with Michael
O'Brien on the Joe Duffy Show on Monday, Christine Buckley asked why
Michael O'Brien, if he was protecting his family from what happened him
in Ferryhouse, just said nothing rather than heap praise on a regular
basis on the Rosminians.

"Nobody is
disputing whether he was sexually abused or not but if he was in denial
why did he just say nothing rather than praise them for all those
years," asked an angry Ms Buckley.

Mr O'Brien told 'The Nationalist' that he was hurt that Christine Buckley could come out with a 'vindictive attack' on him.

"No survivor should attack another. We should work together," he said.

The
former Fianna Fail mayor accused Christine Buckley of " trying to
blacken his good name" because he disagreed with her over how
compensation money from the religious orders was to be distributed among
abuse victims.

The Clonmel man said he had
hid a personal nightmare of abuse at Ferryhouse for decades to protect
his family. He said that during his time as mayor and a councillor and
his appearance on the Late Late Show when he paid tribute to the
Rosminians, "nobody that came through the Redress Board came out before
then.That was not the time or the place to say it because my family did
not know and my family come first with me," he said.

The
pair are embroiled in a bitter row over how some €680m in compensation
from religious orders identified in the Ryan Report should be shared out
among survivors of sexual abuse in religious run residential
institutions.

Christine Buckley of the Aislinn Centre
critiscised the decade old radio interview by Michael O'Brien where he
claimed not to have been sexually abused while he was incarcerated in
St. Joseph's industrial school in Ferryhouse.

This
contradicts his emotional intervention on RTE 's Questions and Answers
programme in May of last year where he detailed the extent of abuse he
suffered, generating widespread public sympathy and anger.During the
radio interview, the former councillor expressed sympathy for victims of
sexual abuse at the hands of a Rosminian brother at Ferryhouse.

He
said. "But I must say, and I have to say it here and now because I had
to meet my family when this came out. And say it never happened to me, I
never seen it happening, I never heard of it happening in my seven
years in Ferryhouse. I never seen or heard of it,"

"We were
left there to those brothers and those priests to become our parents,
and look after us. And as far as I am concerned, 99.9% of them done a
good job... out of every group, no matter what organisation you're in,
you'll find bad eggs. Ferryhouse is my home. And I will defend it to the
end as long as I live because I was reared by them," went the radio
interview.

"In the interview he does say he was punished
and suffered from physical deprivation while in Ferryhouse but he also
stated he never experienced or witnessed sexual abuse," said Christine
Buckley.

The Goldenbridge survivor, who started meetings
for abuse survivors back in 1984, said she was very hurt to find out
after all these years that Michael O'Brien had regularly praised and
paid tribute to the Rosminians.

" I remember getting a
phone call from three men sobbing on the phone from England in the space
of a few weeks telling me of comments made by a resident of Ferryhouse
who was now a politician praising the Rosminians.These abuse victims
were distraught and very hurt," she said.

She said
Michael O'Brien's behaviour was a massive betrayal because a man in his
position as an elected representative, as mayor of his town and as a
member of Fianna Fail, could have come out and told everybody what
happened in Ferryhouse and it would have helped to bring closure and an
apology for the victims much sooner .

"I
want to know how it could happen in such a short space of time that
Michael O'Brien, after years of eulogising the Rosminians, could then to
turn around and tell the people of Clonmel and the world of the graphic
violation of his person. He said he was protecting his family but why
was he an apologist for years without giving any thought to the
survivors of sexual abuse," she asked.

"I
could not doubt any victim of institutional abuse nor have I ever
questioned anybody before. This is the first time I have done this," she
said. "Being in denial is being in denial, but why be so vociferous in
protecting the Rosminian order,"she said.

Christine said
she had been given the contents of the radio interview and the letter
from the 'whistle blower' in October of last year. If she had known its
contents a month earlier, when she accepted a People of the Year award
with Michael O'Brien, she did not think she could have gone on stage
with him.

Mr O'Brien, of the Right to
Peace survivors group, said he differed with Christine Buckley on how
the compensation money should be distributed. He did not want the
government to take the money. He did not agree that huge sums of money
should go to education and counselling which Christine Buckley was
promoting.

"I don't want education or counselling at this
stage. A lot of us are too old for that ," said Mr O'Brien. He said he
had no animosity towards Christine Buckley.

"I
am working on behalf of survivors. I want nothing myself. I don't want
money. I have done my best for the last ten years for everybody," said
Mr O'Brien.

He said that he told the Taoiseach and the Bishops that he wanted nothing off them but that he would fight for former residents.

One in 10 children suffer abuse, say experts

Sarah Boseley, health editor

Wednesday 3 December 2008 00.01 GMT

Last modified on Wednesday 3 December 2008 09.09 GMT

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The true scale of the maltreatment of children in the UK is revealed
by child abuse experts today who say that one in 10 suffers physical,
sexual, emotional abuse or neglect.

Unlike Baby P, who died in Haringey, north London, while on the
at-risk register after months of abuse and neglect, most maltreated
children are not even referred to the authorities.

Teachers, GPs and paediatricians have no confidence in the ability of
social services to make a difference to their lives and fear the
child's plight will be made worse if he or she is taken into care and
placed in a foster family, they say.

A series of papers published today by the Lancet medical journal in
collaboration with the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health paints a grim picture of the unseen sufferings of an estimated 1 million children a year in the UK.

The stories you need to read, in one handy email

Read more

Between 4 and 16% of children suffer physical abuse, such as
hitting, punching, beating and burning, according to a paper by Ruth
Gilbert and colleagues from University College London's Institute of
Child Health. The figures come from research in high-income countries,
including the UK, which is not thought to differ from the average.

Some 5-10% of girls and 1-5% of boys have been subjected to
penetrative sex, usually by a family friend or relative. If sexual abuse
is defined more widely - as anything from being shown pornographic
magazines to rape - it is estimated that it will include at least 15% of
girls and 5% of boys.

Around 10% of children suffer emotional abuse every year, the paper
says, which includes persistently being made to feel worthless, unwanted
or scared. More still - up to 15% a year - suffer neglect, defined as
the failure of their parents or carers to meet the child's basic
emotional or physical needs or ensure their safety.

Those like Baby P who are picked up by the social services and placed
on the at-risk register are only the tip of the iceberg. The plight of
fewer than one in 10 maltreated children is investigated and
substantiated by child protection services.

The experts underline a key finding from the case of Baby P - that
professionals are not communicating and sharing their suspicions.

Lancet editor Richard Horton said the findings, which had taken a
year to reach publication, had "huge significance for considering an
appropriate and measured response to the findings around Baby P".

He added: "What this report does emphasise is the extent of the risk
factors and consequences of child maltreatment, which are of such
complexity that any reflex attempt to apportion blame or think there is a
simple solution to this issue is to completely misrepresent the extent
and depth of the problem."

The papers also expose the paucity of evidence behind the decisions
taken by health professionals and social workers. Far more research is
needed into finding out what will prevent a child being abused. "We
don't know how effective existing practice is," said Jane Barlow,
professor of public health in the early years at Warwick University,
co-author of the paper on interventions. "These are some of the most
vulnerable children out there in society."

In a Lancet commentary, Dr Horton says the series "will unfortunately
not halt the blight of child abuse, because the phenomenon is too
common, too surreptitious and too deeply rooted in deprivation and other
social ills - but we nonetheless hope to raise awareness of the
scientific evidence that is available, and indeed essential, to guide
paediatricians and other professionals in their practice with children
who might have been abused and to help bring a new logic and clarity to
public debate about this contentious area."

hild sexual abuse in the United Kingdom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A West Midlands Police poster attempting to inform children about how to respond to online sexual abuse

Child sexual abuse in the United Kingdom has been reported in
the country throughout its history. Well-publicised examples in recent
years have involved popular entertainers, politicians, military
personnel, and other officials. Around 23,000 cases were identified
during 2012/2013, the latest year for which records exist. However, the
figures exclude children age 16 and 17, and those who do not report
abuse, so it is generally understood that they underestimate the scale
of abuse in the UK. In about 90% of cases, the abuser is a person known
to the child.[1]

In 2012, celebrity Jimmy Savile (who had died the previous year) was posthumously identified as having been a predatory child sexual abuser for the previous six decades. Subsequent investigations, including those of Operation Yewtree,
led to the conviction of several prominent "household names" in the
media, allegations against prominent politicians (mostly deceased), and
calls for a public inquiry to establish what had been known by those
responsible for the institutions where abuse had taken place. An Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse was announced by the British Home Secretary, Theresa May, in July 2014, to examine how the country's institutions have handled their duty of care to protect children from sexual abuse.[2] The inquiry was initially constituted as a panel, but after strenuous complaints was reconstituted in 2015 as a Statutory Inquiry, giving it much greater powers to compel sworn testimony.

Among other major incidents in modern UK history, child abuse has
been recorded on a substantial scale at a number of schools, hospitals,
and care homes, and organised sexual abuse or sexual trafficking rings
were revealed to have been active in Plymouth, Rotherham, Rochdale, Oxford, Derby, Telford and elsewhere.

Contents

1 Statistics

2 Notable incidents

3 Notable offenders

4 See also

5 Further reading

6 References

7 External links

Statistics

About 23,000 cases were recorded by police in England and Wales, in 2012/13.[3]
Around 21,493 sexual offences on children were recognized in 2011/12.
The statistics do not include the children aged 16 and 17.[4]
Some 90% of the sexually abused children were abused by people who they
knew, and about 1 of the 3 abused children did not tell anyone else
about it.[1]

The true number of offences remains doubtful, generally assumed to be larger, due to expected unreported cases of child abuse.[5]

Notable incidents

North Wales child abuse scandal - Scandal leading to a three-year, £13 million investigation into the physical and sexual abuse of children in care homes in the counties of Clwyd and Gwynedd, in North Wales, including the Bryn Estyn children's home at Wrexham, between 1974 and 1990.

Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. See also Operation Yewtree, the police investigation into abuse by Savile and others.

Kincora Boys' Home - the scandal first came to public attention on 24 January 1980 after a news report in the Irish Independent titled it as "Sex Racket at Children's Home".

Plymouth child abuse case - paedophile ring involving at least five adults from different parts of England.

Elm Guest House child abuse scandal - reported centre of abuse and grooming by prominent individuals in the 1970s and 1980s. See also Westminster paedophile dossier.

Rotherham child sexual exploitation scandal - widespread child exploitation in Rotherham, South Yorkshire, England,
between 1997 and 2013, estimated to have involved at least 1400
children who were subjected to 'appalling' sexual exploitation by gangs
of men, many of Pakistani heritage.[6][7]

Rochdale sex trafficking gang. See also Operation Doublet, an ongoing investigation by Greater Manchester Police.

Nottingham Care Homes

Manchester Children's Homes

Islington Children's Homes

Derby sex gang

Oxford sex gang

Telford sex gang

In a television documentary broadcast in August 2003, reporters
uncovered details of an 18-month police and social services
investigation into allegations that young men were targeting under-age
girls for sex, drugs and prostitution in the West Yorkshire town of Keighley.[8]

Notable offenders

See also: Category:British people convicted of child sexual abuse

This is an incomplete list of notable British personalities who have
been convicted of child sexual abuse. It does not include notable
people, such as Jimmy Savile and Cyril Smith, who were publicly accused of abuse after their deaths.

Russell Bishop (1966 - ) - Convicted child molester and abductor. Arrested and convicted in the same year, 1990.[9]

Ronald Castree (1953 - ) - Sexually assaulted, kidnapped, stabbed an 11-year-old girl. Castree was jailed for 32 years.[10]

Max Clifford (1943 - ) - Leading publicist, found guilty in March 2014 of eight indecent assaults on four girls and women aged 14 to 19,[11] and sentenced to eight years in prison.[12][13]

Sidney Cooke (1927 - ) - Dubbed by The Guardian as "Britain's most notorious paedophile".[14]

Chris Denning (1941 - ) - British disc jockey.
He has been jailed several times, for indecency in 1974 at the Old
Bailey, 18 months in 1985, three years in 1988, three months in 1996,
four years in a Czech prison in 1998 and five years in 2008. Denning
regarded them to be "unfair".[15]

Gary Glitter (1944 - ) - Regarded by some to be the father of glam rock,
Glitter is also one of the British entertainment industry's most
infamous serial sex offenders. His career ended in 1999 when he was
jailed for four months after admitting to a collection of 4,000 hardcore
photographs of children being abused.[16] In March 2006, he was jailed again, this time in Vietnam, for sexually abusing two girls. He served almost three years in jail.[17] In 2012, he was the first person to be arrested under Operation Yewtree - the investigation launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.[18]
This led to his conviction and jailing again in the UK for a total of
16 years for sexually abusing three young girls between 1975 and 1980.[19]

Rolf Harris (1930 - ) - British based Australian entertainer. In 2013, Harris was arrested as part of Operation Yewtree
and charged with 12 counts of indecent assault and 4 counts of making
indecent images of a child. On 30 June 2014, Harris was found guilty on
all 12 counts of indecent assault and on 4 July 2014 was sentenced to 5
years and 9 months in prison for a minimum of 2 years and 10 months.[20][21]

Stuart Hall (1929 - ) - Radio and television presenter in North West England and nationally, who presented It's a Knockout and Jeux Sans Frontières and later reported football matches on BBC radio. He pleaded guilty in April 2013 to having indecently assaulted 13 girls, aged between 9 and 17 years old, between 1967 and 1986,[22] and was sentenced to 30 months imprisonment.[23] In 2014 he was found guilty on two further charges and was sentenced to an additional 30 months in prison.[24]

Antoni Imiela (1954 - ) - By March 2012, he is serving 12 years in prison.[25]

Jonathan King
(1944 - ) - English singer-songwriter, businessman. He was convicted
and jailed in 2001 for sexual abuse against boys in the 1980s.[26] King was released on parole in 2005, however he has always denied the allegations.[27]

William Mayne (1928 - 2010) - Author of more than 130 books. In 2004 he was imprisoned for two and a half years.[28]

Gene Morrison (1958 - ) - On September 2009, convicted of 13 child sexual offenses, he was jailed for 5 years.[29]

Charles Napier (1947 - ) On 23 December 2014, convicted of grooming
and sexually assaulting 21 victims at a school where he worked. Was also
Treasurer of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).[30]

Graham Ovenden (1943 - ) - Known artist. On April 2013, found guilty of child sexual abuse, jailed for 2 years in October 2013.[31]

Geoffrey Prime (1938 - ) - Former British spy, convicted of Child sexual abuse, during the 1980s.[32]

Peter Righton (1926 - 2007) - Founding member of the Paedophile Information Exchange. Found guilty in 1992 of possession of obscene child pornography. Mentioned in Tom Watson MP's 2012 Parliamentary Question to David Cameron.[33]

Fred Talbot
(1949 - ) - Former television presenter, best known for his role as a
weatherman on ITV's This Morning programme. In 2015, he was sentenced to
five years in prison, having been found guilty of indecent assault
against two teenaged boys at the Altrincham Grammar School for Boys,
where he had taught in the 1970s.

Ray Teret (1941 - ) - Former Radio Caroline DJ and friend of Jimmy Savile,
he was convicted in 2014 of seven counts of rape and 11 counts of
indecent assault during the 1960s and 1970s against girls as young as
12. He was jailed for 25 years.[34]

Ian Watkins (1977 - ) - Founding member and lead singer of the rock band Lostprophets. In November 2013, Watkins pleaded guilty to 13 charges, including the attempted rape and sexual assault of a child under 13.[35] He was subsequently sentenced to 29 years' imprisonment and six years on extended licence.[36]

See also

Child abuse

Further reading

Nigel Parton, Anne Stafford, Sharon Vincent, Connie Smith (2011). Child Protection Systems in the United Kingdom: A Comparative Analysis. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. ISBN 0857002546.

References

"Incidence and prevalence of child abuse and neglect". NSPCC. Retrieved 30 January 2014.

"Ex-senior judge Butler-Sloss to head child sex abuse inquiry". BBC News Online. 8 July 2014. Retrieved 12 July 2014.

"Facts and figures about child abuse in the UK". NSPCC. Retrieved 30 January 2014.

Chalabi, Mona. "Child sexual abuse: What the statistics tell us". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2014.

"Why Does So Much Abuse of Children Go Unreported?". Huffington Post. 26 March 2012.

"Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Exploitation in Rotherham (1997 – 2013)". Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council. 26 August 2014.

"Rotherham child abuse scandal: 1,400 children exploited, report finds". BBC News. 26 August 2014. Retrieved 26 August 2014.

"Asian rape allegations". Channel 4 News. 27 August 2003. Archived from the original on 20 June 2010.

"March over 'Babes in Wood' deaths". 10 October 2006. In
1990, Bishop was convicted and jailed for life for the kidnap, indecent
assault, and attempted murder of a seven-year-old girl who was left for
dead just 200 yards from her Brighton home.

"Paedophile convicted of Lesley Molseed murder - after evading justice for 32 years". Retrieved 30 January 2014.

Lister, Richard (28 April 2014). "Max Clifford guilty of eight indecent assaults". BBC News. Retrieved 28 April 2014.

"R v Max Clifford". Crimeline. Retrieved 2 May 2014.

"Max Clifford jalied for eight years". BBC News. 2 May 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2014.

Kelso, Paul. "Cooke admits years of child abuse". The Guardian.

"Radio 1 DJ jailed for paedophilia claims offences were consensual". The Daily Telegraph. 22 February 2010.

"Glitter jailed over child porn". BBC News. 12 November 1999. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

"Gary Glitter flown out of Vietnam". BBC News. 19 August 2008. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

"Jimmy Savile: Gary Glitter arrested over sex offences". BBC News. 28 October 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

"Gary Glitter jailed for 16 years". BBC News. 27 February 2015. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

"Rolf Harris guilty: The moment on the witness stand he came closest to convicting himself". The Sydney Morning Herald. 1 July 2014.

"Rolf Harris jailed for five years and nine months". BBC News. 4 July 2014.

"Broadcaster Stuart Hall admits indecent assaults". BBC News. 2 May 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2013.

"Stuart Hall: Sentence Doubled To 30 Months". Sky News. 26 July 2013.

Stuart Hall jailed for indecent assaults BBC News, 23 May 2014. Retrieved 23 May 2014.

Greenwood, Chris (22 March 2012). "M25
rapist jailed for horrific sex attack on mother-of-two 25 years ago -
decade before he went on to commit series of rapes on women and
children". Daily Mail. Retrieved 30 January 2014.

"Pop mogul jailed for sex abuse". BBC News. 21 November 2001. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

"Jonathan King freed". The Guardian. 29 March 2005.

"William Mayne: Award-winning children's author whose career ended in disgrace". The Independent. 20 May 2010.

"Bogus 'expert witness' jailed for five years". Daily Mail. Retrieved 30 January 2014.

"Tory
MP's half-brother who was known as 'Rapier Napier' by his pupils and
helped run Paedophile Information Exchange is jailed for 13 years for
HUNDREDS of sex assaults on young boys in the 60s and 70s". Daily Mail. 23 December 2014. Retrieved 17 January 2015.

Morris, Steven (9 October 2013). "Artist Graham Ovenden jailed for two years for sexual abuse of children". The Guardian. Retrieved 30 January 2014.

1982 Life and career of spy Geoffrey Prime, News report; Interview

Hickman, Martin (25 October 2012). "Was there a paedophile ring in No 10? MP Tom Watson demands probe". The Independent. Retrieved 17 January 2015.

"Former DJ Ray Teret jailed for rapes and indecent assaults". BBC News. 11 December 2014. Retrieved 6 March 2015.

"Lostprophets' Ian Watkins guilty of child sex offences". BBC News, Wales. 26 November 2013. Retrieved 26 November 2013.

"Lostprophets' Ian Watkins sentenced to 35 years over child sex offences". BBC News, Wales. 18 December 2013. Retrieved 18 December 2013.

External links

Thousands of children abused in their own homes are not being protected by local aut

housands of children abused in their own homes are not being protected by local authorities, damning NSPCC report warns

More than half a million children are
abused or neglected at home each year

But charity claims just one in nine are
protected by local authorities

By

Anthony Bond

Published:
02:04, 18 April 2013

|
Updated:
07:47, 18 April 2013

81

View comments

Hundreds of thousands of children
abused in their own homes are slipping through the net as local
authorities are unable to protect them, a children's charity has warned
today.

More than half a
million children are abused or neglected at home each year - but just
one in nine are protected by local authorities, the NSPCC said.

Services
to protect children are improving but the charity warns they will only
ever reach a fraction of the children who are abused.

Worrying: Hundreds of thousands of children
abused in their own homes are slipping through the net as local
authorities are unable to protect them, a children's charity has warned
today. This is a file picture

The scale of the problem is a key
finding in the UK's first national child abuse tracker How Safe Are Our
Children launched by the NSPCC today.

Lisa
Harker, NSPCC head of strategy and one author of the report, said: 'As a
nation we spend more than £6 billion every year on services for
children and families.

'We need to know if our efforts to prevent abuse and protect children are working.

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'Child protection services are
working in overdrive and our report shows the UK is making progress in
some areas. But the hidden extent of child abuse and neglect revealed in
this report is a national scandal.

'Since Baby Peter, social workers and
other professionals are working harder and harder to reduce the harm
caused by abuse and neglect.

'They are taking more referrals, making more assessments, providing more services and putting more children in care.

Tough job: The charity said since the Baby
Peter, pictured, tragedy social workers and other professionals are
working harder and harder to reduce the harm caused by abuse and neglect

'When we discover abuse, we must do everything we can to protect children from further harm and help them recover.

'But it's vital to prevent abuse from
happening to so many children in the first place. We need to shift
policy across the UK towards early intervention - and set a new course
that can stop cruelty blighting so many children's lives.'

Its
new report reveals that for every child subject to a protection plan,
or on child protection registers, another eight have suffered recent
maltreatment.

The NSPCC
estimates that 520,000 children were maltreated by a parent or guardian
in the UK in 2011 but only 58,000 became the subject of child protection
plans in that year.

The
charity estimates it would cost up to £500 million every year to
provide protection plans to just a quarter of these 'hidden' children.

Preventative
services which work with struggling parents before, or as soon as,
issues arise can stop the need for costly protection measures later, the
NSPCC said.

A Department
for Education spokeswoman said: 'There is nothing more important than
protecting children from harm. We agree that we need to intervene early
to help children at risk of abuse or neglect.

'That
is why we have sharpened the statutory guidance to focus far more on
early help, and to clarify what all professionals must do to support
families earlier - before formal intervention is needed.

'We
are also improving the skills of social workers and cutting red tape so
they can get on with the job of protecting vulnerable children. We are
clear that where children are suffering abuse or neglect, they should be
taken into care more quickly.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...

Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook

Quick facts

There are many myths and misconceptions around child sexual abuse and
getting sound information can be hard. These quick facts aim to answer
some of the most commonly asked questions about sexual abuse.

What is child sexual abuse?

Child sexual abuse includes touching and non-touching activity.

Some examples of touching activity include:

touching a child's genitals or private parts for sexual pleasure

making a child touch someone else's genitals, play sexual games or
have sex putting objects or body parts (like fingers, tongue or penis)
inside the vagina, in the mouth or in the anus of a child for sexual
pleasure

Some examples of non-touching activity include:

showing pornography to a child

deliberately exposing an adult's genitals to a child

photographing a child in sexual poses

encouraging a child to watch or hear sexual acts

inappropriately watching a child undress or use the bathroom

As well as the activities described above, there is also the serious
and growing problem of people making and downloading sexual images of
children on the Internet (also referred to as child pornography). To
view child abuse images is to participate in the abuse of a child. Those
who do so may also be abusing children they know. People who look at
this material need help to prevent their behaviour from becoming even
more serious.

How widespread is it?

Child sexual abuse is largely a hidden crime, so it is difficult to
accurately estimate the number of people who are sexually abused at some
time during their childhood.

What is the biggest myth around child sexual abuse?

Very often the TV, radio and newspaper cover stories about children who
are abused, abducted and even murdered, usually by strangers but it is
important to know that these are not typical crimes. Sexual abusers are
more likely to be people we know, and could well be people we care
about; after all more than 8 out of 10 children who are sexually abused
know their abuser. They are family members or friends, neighbours or
babysitters – many hold responsible positions in society. Some will seek
out employment which brings them into contact with children, some will
hold positions of trust which can help to convince other adults that
they are beyond reproach, making it hard for adults to raise their
concerns.

Victims

Child sexual abuse affects people in all walks of life.

Vulnerable children, such as those with learning disabilities or who are isolated can be even more vulnerable to sexual abuse.

Children find it extremely hard to speak out if they are being or have
been abused. In 2000 a study was conducted by the NSPCC and below are
some of the reasons why children were unable to tell:

“it was nobody else’s business”

“didn’t think it was serious or wrong”

“didn’t want parents to find out”

“didn’t want friends to find out”

“didn’t want the authorities to find out”

“was frightened”

“didn’t think would be believed”

“had been threatened by abuser”

Child Maltreatment in the UK, NSPCC 2000

In cases where the abuser is a close family member, children may not
reveal their sexual victimisation until they become adults. Many never
tell even then.

There is little evidence that many children deliberately make false
allegations or misinterpret appropriate adult-child contact as sexual
abuse. In the few recorded cases in which children appear to have made
false allegations, it has usually been the result of manipulation by an
adult.

Children vary in their responses to sexual abuse. The manner in which
the adults react to the child’s disclosure is an important factor in
influencing how the child comes to view the abuse and his or her own
role in it. Being believed and having family support can help the child
to cope and adjust and can decrease some of the traumatic effects of
sexual abuse.

The abuser

Child abusers come from all classes, racial and religious backgrounds and may be homosexual or heterosexual.

Whilst it is more common for us to hear about male offenders, women can also sexually abuse children.

In most cases, abusers are well known to their victims.

Some young people are also capable of causing sexual harm to other
children. This is an especially difficult issue to deal with, partly
because it is hard for us to think of children doing such things, but
also because it is not always easy to tell the difference between normal
sexual exploration and abusive behaviour. Find out more about child
abuse among children and young people and age appropriate sexual behaviour.

It is the abuser who initiates the sexual activity. The offender is responsible for the abuse no matter what the child does.

People who want to abuse children often build a relationship with the
child and the caring adults who want to protect them. Many are good at
making “friends” with children and those who are close to them. Some may
befriend parents who are facing difficulties, sometimes on their own.
They may offer to babysit or offer support with childcare and other
responsibilities. Some seek trusted positions in the community which put
them in contact with children, such as childcare, schools, children’s
groups and sports teams. Some find places such as arcades, playgrounds,
parks, swimming baths and around schools where they can get to know
children. Some use the Internet to contact a child – often through chat
rooms, social networking sites, and interactive gaming sites and other
websites and online forums where children go.

Abusers use a number of tactics to ensure their victim’s silence.
Giving gifts, encouraging a child to keep secrets, threats, blackmail,
coercion and flattery are common tactics. They may make the child afraid
of being hurt physically, but more usually the threat is about what may
happen if they tell, for example, the family breaking up or the father
going to prison or that they will get into trouble. In order to keep the
abuse secret the abuser will often play on the child’s fear,
embarrassment or guilt about what is happening, perhaps convincing them
that no one will believe them. Sometimes the abuser will make the child
believe that he or she enjoyed it and wanted it to happen. There may be
other reasons why a child stays silent and doesn’t tell. Very young or
disabled children or those with learning difficulties may lack the words
or means of communication to let people know what is going on.

Reporting child sexual abuse

It is very disturbing to suspect someone we know of sexually abusing a child,

especially if the person is a friend or a member of the family. It is
so much easier to dismiss such thoughts and put them down to
imagination. But it is better to talk over the situation with someone
than to discover later that we were right to be worried. And remember,
we are not alone. Thousands of people every year discover that someone
in their family or circle of friends has abused a child. Children who
are abused and their families need help to recover from their
experience. Action can lead to abuse being prevented, and children who
are being abused receiving protection and help to recover. It can also
lead to the abuser getting effective treatment to stop abusing and
becoming a safer member of our community. If the abuser is someone close
to us, we need to get support for ourselves too. Visit our get help pages for more information on what action can be taken.

What can be done to prevent child sexual abuse?

If you are concerned about keeping your child safe from sexual abuse,
this is your chance to create a safer environment and a support network
for everyone in your family. Visit our family safety plan pages to find out more.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/...

Highlighting the absolute travesty that our Justice system has become due to the erosion of our cornerstones of law by Saunders and Starmer, did they really consider the affects when they re wrote the criminal procedure rules, pandering to political parties who seek nothing more than the garnering of votes from self interested lobby groups.

Or did they just not care?

Every citizen should be up in arms over this and demanding the heads of every MP and MSP who voted for legislation which created this situation.

"First they came for the communists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a communist;
Then they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a socialist;
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out - because I was not a trade unionist;
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out - because I was not a Jew;
Then they came for me - and there was no one left to speak out for me". Martin Niemoller

https://youtu.be/9jHqndf9Kx4 raped as a child denied justice , do you fancy a million quid to be buggered as a kid?

This is Michael O'Brien former mayor of Clonmel, stating on Irish national television in May 2009 that he was "raped, buggered and beaten" by priests of the Rosminian Order when he was resident of an industrial school. (RTE "Questions and Answers" programme) There is a complete transcript of his statement in the Irish Times here
http://www.irishtimes.com/n...

What "holliegrieg justice" omits to tell us is that there was a very curious follow up to Mr O'Brien's public outburst - and it came from the leader of ANOTHER "Child Abuse Survivors" group, Christine Buckley.

An article in The Sunday Tribune a year later, (16 May 2010) is headed Survivors at Loggerheads Over Denial of Sex Abuse" with subheading "Christine Buckley Questions Michael O'Brien's Radio Interview from 10 years ago"
http://www.irishsalem.com/i...

Here is an extract

Survivors of sexual abuse in religious-run residential institutions are embroiled in an increasingly bitter row over how some €680m in compensation from religious orders identified in the Ryan report should be shared out, the Sunday Tribune has learned.

The dispute took a dramatic twist this weekend when the Aislinn Centre's Christine Buckley criticised a decade-old radio interview with the former mayor of Clonmel, Michael O'Brien, where he claimed NOT [my emphasis] to have been sexually abused while he was incarcerated in St Joseph's industrial school, Ferryhouse.

This directly contradicts a highly-charged intervention on RTE's Questions and Answers programme in May of last year, where O'Brien detailed the extent of abuse he suffered, prompting widespread public sympathy and anger.

During the 1999 interview on a local radio station, O'Brien expresses sympathy for victims of sexual abuse who suffered at the hands of the notorious Rosminian abuser at Ferryhouse, Brother Sean Barry. He goes on to say: "But I must say, and I have to say it here and now, because I had to meet my family when this came out. And say it never happened to me, I never seen it happening, I never heard of it happening in my seven years in Ferryhouse. I never seen or heard of it."

Although O'Brien acknowledges in the interview that he was subjected to physical abuse and deprivation at Ferryhouse, he also pays tribute to the Rosminians and says that this was the state's fault, not Ferryhouse.

"We were left there to those brothers and those priests to become our parents, and look after us. And as far as I'm concerned, 99.9% of them done a good job... out of every group, no matter what organisation you're in, you'll find bad eggs, Ferryhouse is my home. And I will defend it to the end as long as I live, because I was reared by them." .....

Ms Buckley (who died in 2014) once made some truly extraordinary claims about her own treatment by the Sisters of Mercy - AND she supported claims that a nun had murdered a baby by burning holes in its legs with a red hot poker. Accordingly she cannot be accused of bias in favour of the Catholic Church. However the various leaders of "Victims" groups had fallen out about how vast sums of "compensation" should be shared - and for THAT reason, they were prepared to criticise each other.

if you think he made that up clearly you need help.I mean its not like there are vested intrests to make it look like he made it up

The "vested interests" include Christine Buckley, an icon of the child abuse lobby in Ireland, recipient of the European Volunteer of the Year Award in 2009 and an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Trinity College in 2012. (Presiding at the latter ceremony, was former President of Ireland Mary Robinson, in her capacity as Chancellor of the University).

If Mr. O'Brien didn't "make it up" in 2009, he must have done so 10 years earlier, in the radio interview where he emphatically denied having been sexually abused - or knowing of sexual abuse - when he was a resident of the Rosminian institution.

There is no impartiality in law the only objective: conviction, see the Criminal Procedure rules designed to ensure conviction in all criminal cases.............careful holliegreig justice they could be coming after you next

The implication (or innuendo) in the Janner case was that his illness was a ruse to evade justice.
You'd have thought there would be a bit more circumspection after his death, but not a bit of it. Still it seems a "trial of the facts" is being sought. With no defendant and a reported £2.5million estate to claim from, it hardly seems conducive to objective and impartial justice.

We need an enquiry into who advised David Cameron to go for a public enquiry and why?
The cost will be enormous and the length of time it will take infinite.
In about a year Lady Justice Goddard will realise she has been given an impossible and pointless task and want out but how will Cameron escape doing what he has promised?

We need a statute of limitations on most crimes except murder and perhaps rape. I would have thought four years from time of discovery or reaching 18. Yes some people are traumatised by the events, but by doing nothing the offender is likely to just carry on. At times of austerity we don't need millions of taxpayers money blown on historic witch hunts

thats what fucking kids is RAPE

So we should dispense with due process and fair trials wherein actual evidence is required?
To follow that process, see Tony Blair and the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq?

What about the Father in my post?

Get this..............two wrongs DO NOT make one Right.

And to enlighten you further...........read the Criminal Procedure Rules 2005, the rules are applied universally in the prosecution of ALL types of crime.

Envisage the scenario where the State charges you, without anything but oral evidence and sets you before a "re-educated" jury believing in State ideology.

Dangerously balancing on the precipice of a Dictatorship state.

Don't think so...........see Fathers convicted and imprisoned on oral evidence and victimology theory.

Again, see the Iraq war.

Read about the Weimar Republic.

Why Does So Much Abuse of Children Go Unreported?

Posted:
25/03/2012 22:45 BST

Updated:
25/05/2012 10:12 BST

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Do we take the welfare and safety of our children seriously as a society? Taken at face value the answer has to be 'yes'.

Firstly,
despite the recent economic difficulties, the last century has seen
huge rises in wealth and opportunity for children. More young people
stay in education or training post 16 than ever before. When I was at
school foreign holidays were rare but now they are the norm, most
children have access to a family car, a TV, computer and a library.
Children are vaccinated against disease, get free dental care,
subsidised travel on public transport and their families receive money
from the state to help with the costs of parenting. So as overall wealth
has increased there has been a conscious decision by successive
governments to invest in children. The result has been that the health,
material comfort and wellbeing of children have improved.

And
secondly, as a society we have also invested in supporting a safe and
nurturing environment for all children. Laws have been passed that both
state that children are entitled to be safe, and define what, who and
how this will be ensured. Structures have been developed around schools,
GPs and social services that support families and intervene to protect
children when there is a problem. The message has been clear - safe and
nurtured children are all of our priority. And successive Governments
have consciously chosen to legislate to try and achieve just that.

All good so far. As a society, at face value we do take the welfare
of our children seriously. But scratch beneath the surface and it is not
so clear. In 2011, almost 45,000 people across the UK contacted the
NSPCC with concerns about a child - a 29% increase on the previous year.
But 56% of people whose call to the NSPCC was so serious it needed
further action said they had been concerned about the child for at least
a month. Over a quarter had waited at least six months to report their
concerns.

To address this reluctance to take action we have
launched a campaign today - 'Don't Wait Until You're Certain' - to
encourage people to report concerns about child abuse sooner.

The
reality is that all too often we send out very mixed messages about our
level of seriousness. Take the recent horrific cases of Roshane Channer
and Ruben Monteiro. Both 21, they raped an 11-year-old girl in
Bedfordshire. And for good measure they videoed the attack. Their
justification? They thought that the victim was 14. And for this vile
attack they received a 40 month prison sentence. Forty months; what sort
of signal does that send about how seriously we take the welfare of our
children? The Attorney General, following calls from the NSPCC and
others, has now referred these sentences to the Court of Appeal - but
the damage has been done. And this is far from being an isolated case.

And
then there is the fact that in many ways, despite the hard work and
dedication of those working in child protection, much of what we
currently do as a society barely scratches the surface. Just look at the
numbers. As of March 2010, 46,705 children were subject to child
protection plans or on child protection registers because they are
thought to be at risk of harm.

And yet the NSPCC research study
Child Cruelty in the UK 2011 found that 18.6% of 11 to 17-years-olds had
been severely maltreated during childhood. In other words, the number
of children being protected by the state is a tiny proportion of those
who actually need protecting. Silently and unheard thousands of children
are being abused and hurt and no one has noticed. Or if they have then
they haven't let anyone know that they are worried.

The NSPCC
Helpline service allows any adult who is worried about a child to
contact the NSPCC anonymously with their concerns. Some contacts lead to
advice and support being given or signposting to other local services.
But after careful assessment, just under half of all contacts are
considered so serious (21,000 in total) that a referral to the local
social services or the police is made.

Over the past five years
contacts to the NSPCC about abuse (neglect, physical abuse, emotional
abuse and sexual abuse) have doubled overall. But people are still
delaying letting others know about their concerns. And they delay
because they are worried about whether they are right and about whether
they will be taken seriously.

Take the case of Jessie. A
distressed neighbour, who wished to remain anonymous, contacted the
NSPCC to discuss issues and concerns she had about Jessie, aged nine.
They had frequently heard Jessie's mother shouting awful things at her,
such as, "you have spoilt my life" and "you are a useless, horrible
girl".

They had been concerned for some time but had never felt
able to do anything. But what finally made them put aside any doubt was
when Jessie's mum locked Jessie out of the house until 10:30pm in the
middle of winter for misbehaving. The caller went on to say she had
noticed bruises on Jessie's face, arms and legs that she thought had
been caused when her mother had hit her. The NSPCC contacted the local
social services who quickly assessed the situation and took Jessie into
the care of foster carers.

But Jessie had been made to wait for
help. And for tens-of-thousands of children the wait will be longer with
the abuse only ending when they grow up and leave home. So if you are a
child today looking around you how will you feel in answer to the
question 'is the welfare of children taken seriously?' Well, with our
criminal justice system sending mixed messages and more children being
abused and hurt than the systems designed to protect them can cope with,
you would have every right to feel that the seriousness with which
children's welfare is taken can be patchy.

But there are no easy
answers here. Fundamentally the system of child protection needs to be
reviewed so that it reflects the reality that the statutory agencies
alone cannot possibly hope to identify and tackle the extent of harm
actually happening to children. And each and every one of us has to
decide that if we are worried about a child that we will not wait until
we are certain. Because taking the safety of our children seriously
should not be taken at face value.

If you are worried about a child, don't wait until you're certain. Call 0808 800 5000, text 88858 or visit www.nspcc.org.uk

Watch the new NSPCC campaign video here.

Follow Peter Watt on Twitter:
www.twitter.com/peterwatt123

More:

Nspcc

Child Abuse

UK Impact

Children

UK Lifestyle

UK

Child Protection

Parenting

The NSPCC a "charity" with a £31 million government contract, and a pension bill which until 2-3 years ago was a similar figure.
Cuts to judicial and policing budgets.....get a "service provider" to support.
Last time I checked the records the CEO of the NSPCC was / is a former member of Tony "lets pile off to Iraq cos I concur with Bush that there are weapons of mass destruction" Blair.
John Reid and G4S, private services supporting policing and civil and military security services, frequently winning government contracts.
The NSPCC are simply following the same m.o......clearly you Hollie (whatever your real name is) have either:-

A vested interest in the objectives of the NSPCC (financial or moral......maybe both)
And are either deliberately assisting in the reconstruction of law which places the state above the family and: Or are too ignorant / arrogant / naive to identify what is being done to society "in the name of the children".
As for your statistics, with the extension of so many variables to be included in "abuse" and with those variables being contextualised and so subjective (see NGO effecting law......again) any wonder there's been a rise in calls to the NSPCC......its a self promulgating business model supported by the tax payer and beneficiaries. With all adults now under suspicion and in fear and children exempt from any accountability, with all the rights and nil responsibilities.unless of course they carry a political banner or murder a child.
The state has taken over every aspect of our lives and the lives of our children.
But I now realize that you are incapable of firstly:
Objective analysis (you didn't read the article, not once, but twice).
Have no grasp of cause and effect (Blairs lies on WMD / Iraq / Arab spring and its fallout) that tells me that you either work for Public services,,,,or worse are a consultant to Government / NGO.
And due to this you deny lessons from history (supporting theories and legislation remise of the Weimar Republic.....see the Reichstag FIre Act)
Onwards, forever onwards blindly they shall go....to create their New World Order in the name of all......except we don't all want to be part of it. And we don't want our children enslaved within it either!!!!
State controlled or controller of the state......which are you?

Still catching up with China conducting UN peace keeping operations I assume?

Too much for you to take in......poor you, suggest you call the Samaritans before you do something awful......like think for yourself

No wonder there's been an increase of calls to the NSPCC....(nationalist society for political correctness curriculum), with the completely subjective extensions of legislation to make anything and everything an "abuse".....from chastisement of children by adults to incorrect political and religious education.

Extensions which are so ambiguous and subjective that the state can make the determination of findings......which suits the state.

Thats authoritarianism.....by the state.

oh dear seems you only belive what you conjure up yourself, two reports one clown

Unlike you....I may not agree with what you say....but.... I will defend to the death your right to say it......even when you cant evidence it......if I was a tit....i wouldn't be capable of texting never mind debate.....touche'

sorry acting like a tit.Touche the tit

Apology appreciated.....and.....i guess you have quite rightly some raw emotions......but others are exploiting personal circumstances for a wider agenda.....if we don't step back....and consider the ramifications then we... Only have ourselves to blame when the machinations enslave us all.

Thinking of you.....hoping for a better tomorrow

Study: Most Child Abuse Goes Unreported

By
Tiffany Sharples
Tuesday, Dec. 02, 2008

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Children in highly developed countries suffer abuse and neglect
much more often than is reported by official child-protective agencies,
according to the findings of the first in a comprehensive series of
reports on child maltreatment, published Dec. 2 in the British medical
journal The Lancet.

Based on a review of research conducted on child abuse between
2000 and June of this year, researchers estimate that 4% to 16% of
children are physically abused each year in high-income nations,
including the United States, United Kingdom, Australia and Canada. As
many as 15% are neglected, and up to 10% of girls and 5% of boys suffer
severe sexual abuse; many more are victims of other sexual injury. Yet
researchers say that as few as 1 in 10 of those instances of abuse are
actually confirmed by social-service agencies — and that measuring the
exact scope of the problem is nearly impossible. (See the Year in Health, from A to Z.)

The issue lies in the delicate nature of the crimes — and the
consequences of intervention. Many cases of abuse are rife with
potential for long-term harm of the child, whether or not the assault is
reported. The decision to report is rarely clear-cut, says Theresa
Costello, director of the National Resource Center for Child Protective
Services, who was not involved with the new research. "Professionals
want to advocate for their clients, but they also know the reality of
the public child-welfare system," she says. "There is a natural
professional dilemma when you see a kid and you think, 'I should make a
report,' but you're not sure you want to subject that child to the
system."

Indeed, the second study in the Lancet analysis, citing
previous research, reveals that physicians reported only 6% of
children's injury cases to protective services, even though they
suspected the injury was a result of abuse 10% of the time. Further,
researchers say that many more cases of maltreatment — particularly of
sexual abuse — are never even suspected, and the victimized children
never come forward to report the assaults.

"The official statistics agencies produce are conservative estimates
of probably the lowest level of child maltreatment," says Dr. Cathy
Spatz Widom, a psychology professor at John Jay College of Criminal
Justice, who specializes in the long-term effects of child abuse and is a
lead author on one of the Lancet studies.

Those numbers, researchers say, may now be on the rise. Historically,
economic hardship has often corresponded with increases in child abuse,
says Dr. Carole Jenny, a professor of pediatrics at Brown University
and an expert in identifying and treating victims of child abuse, who
authored a commentary in The Lancet. In the past six months,
Jenny says she has seen increases in rates of maltreatment and heard
similar reports from her colleagues. "I imagine that as the economy
worsens, [child-abuse specialists are] only going to be more and more
busy," she says, adding that the recession will likely mean less funding
for already strained social services. "As the pressures on families are
increasing markedly, the amount of help available goes down," she says.

The new research underscores the fact that the most common type of
child abuse in developed countries — simple neglect — is often the least
publicized. The Lancet analysis finds that neglect is the No. 1
category of maltreatment reported by child-protective services. "We have
paid much more attention to physical and sexual abuse. We have called
people's attention to it. Even though neglect is the largest portion of
cases, it's under everybody's radar," Widom says. "And yet we know that
neglected children are at as high a risk as physically abused kids for
becoming violent offenders, for example, or having low reading ability."
(See pictures of a diverse group of American teens.)

Widom points to years of past research linking early childhood abuse
to an increased possibility of long-term behavioral and psychological
problems, ranging from low educational achievement to criminal behavior,
risky sexual practices and even increased chance of obesity. "Child
maltreatment has long-lasting effects across multiple domains of
functioning. It's not just in childhood. It lasts into adulthood, and we
are not really thinking about these long-term consequences, and we're
not planning for them," she says.

Yet there is no completely objective test for the presence of abuse.
Identifying victimized children is often a subjective process, and
caregivers may be wary of levying false accusations. Self-reports of
abuse are frequently flawed and inaccurate as well, says Widom; they
often produce the largest estimates of abuse incidence, but their
definitions of maltreatment are overly broad. Even when children of
abuse are correctly identified, not all caregivers know how to ensure
their proper treatment. "There's no gold standard," Widom says.

There is an effort afoot to rectify that problem. Brown University's
Jenny is one of roughly 250 pediatricians across the U.S. whose
specialty is the identification and prevention of child abuse, and the
field is gaining momentum — and standardization. By 2012, a three-year
postresidency fellowship will be required of all new pediatricians who
wish to specialize in child abuse. And the National Association of
Children's Hospitals has advocated requiring all children's medical
institutions to have a child-abuse specialist on staff.

The ultimate goal is to prevent abuse in the first place, says Widom,
and to protect the well-being of children who have been victimized. "It
would be wrong to assume that all maltreated children are going to turn
out to have all of these problems," she says.

See pictures from an X-ray studio.

See TIME's Pictures of the Week.

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H

hmm YOU have made up a scenario that doesnt exist in the UK and seem to be saying it shouldnt be investigated because it may not be a real abuse case or it may cost , catch 22 against those who are victims

What made up scenario? Iraq and alleged WMD?
The innocent man Michael Long prosecuted by a politicized judiciary and convicted on , not only uncorroborated but contradictory evidence and found guilty by a jury indoctrinated with state ideology.....?
You clearly have no understanding of either contemporary British history or modern history....the Weimar republic.
Nor, it appears that you read the article.
I don't know whether its your arrogance or ignorance which is worse.

your whole arrested nonsense, clearly you are a fucking mong as demonstrated by your China joining the UN pish ,twat

All very quiet there Hollie....catching up on the news about Chinese troops conducting peace keeping operations as part of the UN South Sudan peacekeeping force.....or learning to read.....or, hopefully, starting to think for yourself.....or will you continue to conduct virtue signalling?

No apology for name calling due to your ignorance is required, humility is enough.

cuntycurran spewed Maybe not Australia, but the UN have their own agenda, maybe all UN
wannabe members need to consider that......china now part of the
UN.....its about the Superpowers and those who want to benefit from that
power, join......or remain outwith the sphere of influence, ie: IS,
north Korea...... blah blah blah ..... china now part of the
UN hahaha since the 1970s

NA some of us have a life ,you said that china had JUST joined the UN, you are a troll tit

No where....did I say "just joined".....regardless of when they started operations......you were not aware of it.....regardless of when....you refuted the fact that they are now part of the UN......and I may.....in your opinion......be a "tit" (as in breast.....why do you keep referring to female body parts to make your.....not very succinct point)?
You still haven't read the article.....have you?
Bitter social worker passed over for promotion or disaffected cross dresser.... Your not Bruce Jenner Shirley?

Why Do Adults Fail to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse or Exploitation?

No excuses. But no simple answers, either.

Sorting It Out for Yourself

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General Issues and Cautions

Masculinity, Self-Esteem and Identity

Relationships

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Recovery and Therapy

Others Who Were Involved – Or Not

Why Do People Sexually Use or Abuse Children?

Why Do Adults Fail to Protect Children from Sexual Abuse or Exploitation?

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Ask
nearly anyone: They’ll say they would speak up if they thought a child
was being sexually used or abused. Many are certain they’d recognize
exploitive or abusive behavior if it were happening. Almost no one
believes they would allow harmful sexual behavior to continue if they
knew for sure that it was going on.

And yet, the sad truth: Millions of children have unwanted or abusive
sexual experiences. Many of them believe, correctly, that someone else
knows or should know about their situation, but does little or nothing
to protect them. Some tell adults what’s going on, seeking protection
and help, only to be met with disbelief, denial, blame, or even
punishment. How can that be?

When you’re the one who has been hurt in this way (or someone who
cares about a child who has), it’s hard to imagine that there can be any
“good reason” for failing to protect a vulnerable child. You may feel
doubly betrayed by someone’s failure to help. You were in danger,
someone could have protected you and chose not to…period. No excuses or
rationalizations for their failure seem acceptable.

Also, some people actually feel more anger toward a non-abusive adult
who didn’t speak up than toward the person who actually hurt them. They
may have expected the worst of the abuser, who was clearly deeply
disturbed or had little or no concern for others, but expected better
from someone who was otherwise mostly caring and worthy of trust. This
anger at the person who failed to protect may be especially strong while
unwanted or abusive sexual experiences are happening, or as one begins
coming to grips with the consequences. But it can last for decades.

We totally understand. We are not trying to “excuse” anyone. We are
not trying to convince you of anything. We are just offering some
perspectives and information based on decades of experience and research
on how people can become “bystanders” who fail to protect others from
harm, including children who are being sexually used or abused.

A time may have come, or may come, when you really want to understand: Why did [whoever it was], who could have protected me – could have stopped it – remain silent and do nothing, even when the evidence was clear?

We’re not asking you to stop feeling angry

Maybe answering these questions feels like an important part of your
healing process. Maybe you want to reconnect with someone who did not
protect you, and hope to prepare yourself by trying to understand why
and how they may understand or justify their response (or lack of one).
Maybe you want to wrap up some loose ends in your own mind, so you can
let go and move on from a relationship with someone who failed you when
you needed them most.

Whatever your reasons for wanting to know, there is no simple answer
to the question. And again, gaining understanding does not mean having
to give up your anger or disappointment toward the person before you’re
good and ready, if ever.

With these complexities and cautions in mind, we offer the following perspectives and information.

Most important, it’s helpful to remember that the people children
look to for protection are – like all of us – imperfect and complicated
individuals. They have very real limitations, including thinking that’s
distorted by hopes, fears and misunderstandings. What you legitimately
experienced as a betrayal may have been the best they could do at the
time. That doesn’t make it OK, just tragically human and real.

As difficult as it may be to accept, there are many genuine,
compelling reasons that it can be challenging for adults – even
otherwise loving and caring adults – to take protective action, or even
to notice, when children are being sexually used or abused, or at risk
of being harmed in that way. These reasons or causes include:

Overwhelming feelings (like fear, anger, or shame) caused by just thinking about the sexual abuse of children.

Confusion caused by incorrect stereotypes about what kinds of people sexually use and abuse children.

Physical, emotional, and financial dependency on an individual or group that would be lost (for oneself and the family) if such concerns are raised

Self doubts of various kinds (e.g., “I’m paranoid.” “What if I’m wrong?” “It’s none of my business.”).

Fears of various consequences (e.g., of acknowledging betrayal by a trusted and respected person, of being wrong, of being right).

For these and many other reasons (explored in detail below), even
when an adult knows about such behavior, he or she may not speak up, or
may even tell the child to keep quiet. Also, if the child’s distress or
any harm seems minor or absent, a tragic calculation may take place: the
immediate costs of confronting the situation seem greater than the
imagined long-term costs of looking the other way.

Tragically limited people, in tragic predicaments

As we’ve said before, such reasons do not excuse the failure to act
protectively. They just offer possible explanations for why that
decision can be made, and how it can be much more complicated than it
seems at first.

The reality of this complexity, and the tragic and all-too-human
limitations that result in failure to protect sexually used and abused
children, are very serious challenges to educating and empowering adults
to overcome such barriers to action. Thankfully, some people and
organizations are addressing this real-world complexity in their efforts
to prevent and end the sexual exploitation and abuse of children. A
leader is Stop It Now! , which has many resources for adults attempting to deal with suspected or known sexual abuse of a child they know.

What’s written above is a general overview, and may be enough for you
(right now). If you want more information about the reasons mentioned
above, we explore each one and some others in depth below. We also offer
some final thoughts at the very end of this page.

Overwhelming Feelings

Even adults with no personal experiences of sexual trauma will often
have instant, gut-wrenching reactions to hearing or seeing anything
about the sexual abuse of a child. Such unpleasant and unwanted
reactions make many people very resistant to paying attention to
anything that might trigger such responses again – including clear
evidence that sexual abuse is happening to a child they know.

Given how common unwanted and abusive sexual experiences in childhood
are for both men and women (1 in 3 women and 1 in 6 men), there’s a
good possibility that a potentially protective adult has had prior
experience with sexual trauma, either personally or with someone close
to them.

We know that people can respond to such a history in many ways, some
of which involve great efforts to avoid unwanted and confusing feelings
that the experience may have caused. These strategies can include
suppressing memories, denying it ever happened, blaming oneself,
self-medication with alcohol or drugs, and rage or violence against
others or themselves.

The ability to maintain such self-protective strategies (whether or
not they are actually helpful) is usually greatly challenged when one
learns that a child one cares about is or may be having similar harmful
sexual experiences. The adult may be struggling (with or without
realizing it) to keep such coping strategies or “defenses” from breaking
down. When the adult is going through that internal struggle, it can be
very difficult to support the child, or even to acknowledge the reality
of the situation.

Stereotypes

One of the biggest blocks to acting on suspicions is the tendency,
which all of us have, to divide the world into “good” people, who do
good things, and “bad” people, who do evil. We all use stereotypes as
shortcuts to decide who and what is safe.

That’s how our brains work. And it’s very reassuring. We think we can
tell who poses a risk. If they generally behave well, do good things
for others, or are generous, inspiring, respected by others or fun to be
with, then we instinctively believe they’re safe.

Dangerous stereotypes about who sexually abuses children

Tragically, such thinking gets in the way of protecting children.
Even if we recognize this fact and know better, we still tend to act as
if it’s only evil and creepy people who hurt children. We believe that
we would easily recognize such people and protect children from them.

Unfortunately, it’s much more complicated than that. Those widely
accepted stereotypes, especially the ones about what “good people” do to
others, make it difficult to recognize real risks. They are also what
make it so difficult for children to tell when a respected person is
taking advantage of them sexually.

The truth is, sometimes loving and involved mothers and fathers
sexually hurt children. Sometimes fun and generous grandparents sexually
hurt children. Sometimes caring and dedicated coaches and teachers
sexually hurt children. Sometimes inspiring religious leaders sexually
hurt children. Sometimes exciting and attentive babysitters, and
protective older siblings, cousins or kids down the street, sexually
harm children.

In fact, only rarely is the person sexually harming a child one of those totally creepy people that everyone already suspects.

Most of us find it very challenging to simultaneously hold two
conflicting views of how we expect people to behave. And so we often
fail to see the risk when it’s staring us in the face. It’s very
difficult, even scary, to accept that “good” people have “bad” qualities
and behaviors, especially when the “good” person is somebody we care
about or respect. So there’s a strong tendency to ignore or bend the
facts to fit our reassuring expectations. In reality, no one is purely
good or purely bad. And sometimes a “good” person’s bad behaviors
include sexually using or abusing children.

Still, even if someone can truly get past such stereotypes, the very
real costs of speaking up create a huge barrier to acting. And as we’ve
pointed out before, adults in a position to protect a child are also –
like all of us – imperfect human beings with complicated mixtures of
strengths, fears, and weaknesses that may severely limit their ability
to protect a child who is being sexually used or abused.

The Cost of Speaking Up vs. The Cost of Silence

Sadly, there are many ways that adults come to believe that trying to
protect a child from sexual exploitation or abuse is not worth the
potential costs of doing so. Here are some of the most common ones.

Dependence on an individual. Often, people who take
advantage of a power imbalance to sexually harm a child also inspire
feelings of powerlessness in adults who could protect that child. This
sense of powerlessness may result from emotional and/or financial
dependency on the person committing the harmful acts. Or there may have
been previous threats or acts of physical or emotional violence from
that person, or threats of suicide.

Competing survival needs and potential for greater harm.
Many people are kept from speaking up by legitimate fears of violent
retaliation against themselves, the child being abused, or other family
members. Domestic violence or fear of a powerful and violent individual
or group who is sexually hurting a child (like gang members, people
involved in organized crime, or a corrupt police officer) are complex
and especially dangerous challenges to acting protectively.

Dependence on a family or community group. Accusing
someone within a family, religious or community group often leads to
being rejected by family or group members who can’t bring themselves to
believe the accusation. When the family or group is a key source of
emotional or financial support, risking rejection may feel far more
dangerous than the risks of remaining silent. For some people,
maintaining family or community support (even at the cost of their own
silence and harm to the child) feels like an issue of personal survival.

Concluding that protecting a child is just too costly

In addition, if the person to be accused has high status or wields
power or authority in the group, it may not just be fear getting in the
way, but also deeply ingrained values and beliefs about obeying
authority figures. And when the person under suspicion has protected or
stood by others in previous difficult situations, a genuine fear of
being “disloyal” may be particularly challenging.

Reluctance to acknowledge betrayal. When an
individual who is loved or admired sexually harms a child, the powerful
sense of betrayal is felt not just by the child, but also by everyone
else who trusted or respected that person. For both children and adults,
acknowledging such a betrayal can threaten their overall sense of
safety in the world.

That is, suddenly the rules have changed: Confidence about who can be
trusted, and in one’s own judgments about friends, family members and
other people, are totally called into question. Many children who have
been exploited or abused face a tragic choice – between accepting the
frightening new reality of betrayal and uncertainty, on the one hand,
and what feels like the comparative safety of denying that anything has
changed, on the other. Understandably, vulnerable children may choose
denial. Yet the same is true for many adults who could protect children
from the terrible betrayals of sexual exploitation or abuse.

Guilt or shame about previous silence. Oddly, guilt
or shame about not speaking up sooner can be another powerful factor
that keeps people from acting, even once they let themselves recognize
that something is not right.

Imagine you get a new job and in the first week you ask your boss
about a minor but questionable expense on his expense account. He tells
you to ignore it, that it’s OK, and you go on to let similar
questionable expenses pass by each week. A year later, when a company
audit raises the same questions, you find yourself trying to defend your
boss’s actions to keep yourself from looking bad.

Realizing that you’ve tolerated inappropriate or harmful behavior
over and over tends to make it much harder to confront the behavior in
the present. People tend to feel like they’re partly responsible, and
come to have a stake in pretending or even believing that the behavior
must have been OK.

Self Doubt

Self doubt comes in many forms and from many sources, and it’s a
major stumbling block for people who want to do what’s right when they
suspect or know a child is being sexually exploited or abused.

Examples of self-doubt include:

Am I being a “prude”? People who want to be
open-minded about sexual matters sometimes distrust their own discomfort
when they suspect sexually harmful behaviors. They wonder if they’re
being prudish, or too proper. By focusing on their own feelings about
sex, they sometimes miss real signals of harm or power imbalances that
make consent impossible, and end up overlooking abusive or exploitive
sexual behavior.

Doubting valid feelings, thoughts, and perceptions

Maybe I’m just being paranoid. People who have
experienced abuse or violence themselves are often highly attuned to the
slightest hint of a harmful interaction. But that hyperawareness or
hypervigilance can be a double-edged sword. For example, after
repeatedly pointing out concerning behaviors to family members and
others who don’t believe them and dismiss their concerns, some people
come to doubt their own perceptions.

What if I’m wrong? It’s none of my business. “Mind
your own business” is one of the earliest lessons many of us were
taught. Most people are reluctant to accuse someone else – especially
about something as charged as sexual abuse – unless they have solid
proof. Fears of almost surely ruining a friendship or other
relationship, and of possibly hurting an innocent person’s reputation
over something that may not be true, often outweigh the intention to act
protectively on a suspicion.

What if I’m right? We’ll lose everything. Fears of
the breakup of one’s family, of destructive intervention by child
protective services, of shame, of losing one’s children, home or social
standing – all of these stop some people from acting protectively. An
imperfect child protection system and a criminal justice system that
harshly punishes nearly all people who are convicted of sexual offenses
(even children), often leads family members not to report someone they
care about. Fear of devastating lifelong legal and other consequences
are especially powerful when the person sexually misusing or abusing a
child is another child or adolescent. (Adolescents and young children,
almost always in response to being abused themselves, commit more than a
third of all reported sexual abuse of children.)

Misunderstandings about how children respond to unwanted or abusive sexual experiences, or even what they are.

Many adults wrongly assume a child would tell if they experienced a
traumatic sexual interaction. If the child doesn’t tell, they assume
nothing happened. Even when exploitation or abuse is known, if there is
no visible impact on the child, or only minor effects are noticed,
adults may believe the experience will be forgotten and have no lasting
negative effects. They may genuinely think that it’s “best not to focus
on a bad memory.”

Some adults also incorrectly equate sexual abuse only with violent
rape, and don’t recognize that very serious harm can be caused by many
kinds of sexualized interactions with children, including unwelcome
touching, exposure to pornography, witnessing sexual acts, or even
sexually demeaning and/or threatening comments. All of these experiences
are unwanted or abusive betrayals of adult’s responsibilities and
children’s trust, and all can have lasting negative effects on a child’s
mind, brain, body, relationships, and abilities to succeed at school
and work.

Demands for Forgiveness

Forgiveness can be false, and destructive

In many cultures, faith communities and families, the act of
forgiveness is held up as the highest ideal, and for good reasons. Some
acts of forgiveness are truly genuine on the part of the person doing
the forgiving, truly justified by the attitudes and actions of the
person receiving forgiveness, and truly emotionally, morally and
spiritually beneficial for everyone involved.

But others are not. Unfortunately, forgiveness can be false and
destructive. This happens when it is demanded or forced – by outside
pressure from others, including those who mostly want to avoid conflict
and genuinely dealing with the problem, or by internal
pressure, including a felt obligation to forgive in order to be a good
person. This happens when someone and his or her actions are not (yet)
worthy of forgiveness, at least not worthy of forgiveness as the only or
main response to the harmful behavior.

Also, unfortunately some people strongly but incorrectly believe that
a (seemingly) sincere apology, especially when accompanied by a promise
not to repeat one’s harmful behavior, is enough for everyone to “move
on.”

Tragically, the pressure to “forgive and forget” can be a powerful
obstacle to protecting children effectively from harm. Finally, giving
in to such a demand for
forgiveness also means dismissing the feelings of those who have been
harmed, and for them it usually feels, rightly so, like an extension of
the abuse.

Some Final Thoughts

We hope the perspectives and information on this page have been
enlightening and helpful for you. In closing we want to emphasize a few
things:

While any or all of these reasons may be real, even legitimate
roadblocks to protecting a child, none of them free adults from the
responsibility of doing everything they can to keep children safe and
help them heal from harm they have already suffered.

We hope that, by being aware of these complicated obstacles, and
having a sober (if grudging) respect for their roots in inescapable
human limitations and tragic social circumstances, we can all support
one another more effectively in overcoming the very real barriers to
protecting children.

Also, depending on your personal situation, understanding what might
have gotten in the way may – or may not – reduce your feelings of
disappointment, betrayal, or anger toward a person or group who failed
to protect you or someone you love.

Finally, why people fail to protect a child from unwanted or abusive
sexual experiences, especially if you were the child, are never merely
“reasons” to be “understood.” They are tragic and painful realities that
people who face them cannot help but struggle with, even grieve over –
hopefully with the help of others who care and can truly help with
sorting it out, however long that may need to take.

For excellent child sexual abuse prevention information and
resources, including guidebooks on how to talk with other adults about
potential or definite sexual abuse situations, visit the website of Stop It Now.

the implication is clear china now part of the
UN hahaha since the 1970s

Bitter social worker hahaha keep fishing you nonce supporting goon

Its great they have given you access to the internet in your cell

What....."arrested nonsense"?
You epitomise all that is wrong with this country....you resort to emotive reaction....because of your lack of ability to reason with logic.
As for China, they are now conducting peace keeping operations in South Sudan under UN mandate.....

Trouble is that most of the cases which have been reported have not been about 'kids' (they've been about adolescents, not children) and they've not been about 'fucking' (they've been about practices which often fall far short of penetration).

total nonsense