Friday night song
Monthly Archives: May 2013
MACUR REVIEW: PUBLIC MEETING IN WREXHAM
From Fighting Back
~
Thank you for your interest in the work of the Macur Review, which is progressing well.
.
Mrs Justice Macur is keen to hear from as many individuals and organisations as possible and would like to let you know that we will shortly be holding a public meeting in North Wales, to provide local people with an opportunity to identify the Review team and to provide any additional information relevant to the Macur Review terms of reference.
.
The meeting will take place on Tuesday 18 June and will be held at the Ramada Hotel in Wrexham, to provide a neutral venue in a location with good transport links. The event will be attended by Mrs Justice Macur and members of the Review team. There will be two sessions; one starting at 12:30, the other at 18:00 when the Judge will say a few opening words, but in keeping with wishing to hear views, she will otherwise be very much in listening mode. Given the sensitivity of the issues covered by the Review, we would like to offer attendees a private appointment by prior arrangement if this would be preferable. Please contact Marie Colton at the address /contact details below if you are interested in considering this option.
.
There may be some local media coverage of the meeting, but Mrs Justice Macur is clear that she is not holding a press conference.
.
We do appreciate that you may not be available to attend given the pressures on your time. However, should you wish to provide any relevant information in addition to that already submitted, this can be sent either by email to enquiries@macurreview.gsi.gov.uk or by post to Room TM 10.02, Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, WC2A 2LL.
.
Kind regards
.
Macur Review
TM 10.02 | Royal Courts of Justice | London | WC2A 2LL
.
From Fighting Back
Cleveland: Unspeakable Truths
The headline summed it up: “Is this the film that should never have been made ?”.
Just as telling was that the article under it – in the TV Times – was the only national press coverage of the film. Ten years after the Cleveland Child Abuse Crisis not a single newspaper reported on a documentary which told – for the first time – the truth about what had happened to the children at the heart of a “scandal” which had gripped and divided the entire country. Not for nothing was the film called “Cleveland: Unspeakable Truths”.
For those too young to recall it – and for those who still do – it’s worth recalling the events as they unfolded.
In the spring of 1987, 121 children from the (then) county of Cleveland – an area of some 583 square km and including the economically depressed towns of Hartlepool, Redcar…
View original post 1,994 more words
Filed under Uncategorized
Jimmy Savile: West Yorkshire Police reveal abuse figures
From BBC News
Jimmy Savile’s offending took place in locations including hospitals, public toilets, a cemetery and nightclubs, allegations collated by police show.
Across West Yorkshire, 79 offences have been recorded against 71 people, the figures have revealed.
Thirty-five attacks by the broadcaster in hospitals involved complainants ranging in age from five to 45.
The West Yorkshire Police figures show Savile targeted 18 victims at private addresses in Leeds and Bradford.
The figures, from West Yorkshire Police’s Operation Newgreen victim and crime survey, suggest Savile was most prolific in his offending in the region – including at the Leeds General Infirmary (LGI) and the city’s St James’s Hospital – in the 1960s and 70s.
In January, Operation Yewtree detectives revealed they had recorded 214 alleged sex offences committed nationwide by the BBC presenter, who died in October 2011, aged 84.
By March, 450 claims had been made against Savile since the launch of Yewtree in October 2012.
According to the West Yorkshire Police figures, in the 1960s Savile struck 25 times in the region, with eight attacks at the LGI and two at St James’s Hospital. A further nine offences are reported to have happened in nightclubs.
In the following decade the presenter continued to prey on people at the LGI, according to complaints made to police, with 11 alleged offences committed there.
No attacks were reported at St James’ Hospital in the 1970s, although 11 offences were committed on what police described as private property during that decade and eight in other public places.
A spokesman for Leeds Teaching Hospitals Trust declined to comment on the hospital allegations.
Savile’s hospital attacks
- 29 at Leeds General Infirmary
- 2 at St James’s
- 2 at High Royds
- 1 at Dewsbury
- 1 at LGI or St James (unknown)
Savile’s ‘public’ attacks
- 1 restaurant
- 1 park
- 1 cemetery
- 1 charity event
- 3 business premises
- 1 school
- 1 public toilet
- 1 car park
- 2 hotels
- 1 railway station
- 1 in the a street
‘Pattern of offending’
Attacks in other hospitals in West Yorkshire have also been reported to police, with one at Dewsbury Hospital in the 1960s, and two separate attacks in High Royds Hospital at Menston, near Ilkley, which treated psychiatric patients, in the 1970s and 1980s.
The police figures show a total of 25 offences were committed against 24 victims in what the force described as public locations.
Ten of these were in nightclubs, with other attacks detailed in a cemetery, a public toilet, a railway station, a park, a street and two in hotels.
Savile’s alleged attacks on private property include 19 offences against 18 victims, with the youngest aged five and the oldest an 18 year old.
Seventeen of those offences were said to have happened in Leeds, one in Bradford and one at an undisclosed location.
In a statement, West Yorkshire Police said: “It is important that any victims of either recent or past offences have the confidence to come forward.
“All reports are taken seriously and West Yorkshire Police assures victims that they will be treated in confidence with sensitivity and respect.”
Alan Collins, a lawyer representing some of the alleged victims of Savile, said the figures showed the presenter had been prepared to take risks to satisfy his needs.
He said: “I draw two conclusions from the statistics: one they provide corroboration there is a pattern of offending. It shows that Savile was a serial abuser operating with a particular MO (modus operandi).
“Secondly, it shows that he took risks, that he was an opportunist – the type of location that has been revealed by police is very diverse.
“And it shows that Savile was prepared to take risks in order to abuse children and young people.”
From BBC News
In Response To Council Review Of The White Report
By Dr Liz Davies
In Response to this post HERE
This is the first time I have read this report. All these years later it shocks me deeply. Herbert Laming was head of the Social Services Inspectorate at the time. He did a paper review and so would have been limited by which papers he received from the Council.
Please be assured we didn’t make it up. So much was never investigated – the police, who were working very well with me, were removed from one of the main investigations I was conducting into the most serious crimes against children you could ever imagine. Also the child protection police were very supportive of our work and other professionals such as paediatricians, GPs, teachers, probation officers, health visitors, lawyers and child psychiatrists were all working with us on the front line very closely and effectively. Yet, when reports were sent to the Islington Area Child Protection Committee – it found no evidence. The White report said there was no evidence and reported the police as stating the same thing at a time when I was working with police investigating organised abuse!
There must be professionals and survivors of the Islington scandal who could now come forward to Operation Fernbridge.
As I have said before, I am happy to respond to emails about Islington.
Dr Liz Davies
Reader in Child Protection
London Metropolitan University
Filed under Abuse, Fairbank, Fernbridge, News, Politics
THE PAEDOFILE: Reforming the Family Courts…what is behind this disastrous MoJ effort?
Do we blame the Fishface at the top? Or is this just another élite cover-up?
An intellectual stickleback engages in introspection
The constitutional braindeath at the heart of the Conservative Party gets more depressing with every month that passes. Labour under Blair and Brown were no better – and I have no doubt at all that the ‘advisers’ in the Ed Miller Band are just as thick – but it is the Tory Party that’s in power, and as right now they’re the ones vandalising the Rule of Law and Equality before the Law, they are obviously the people to fire at. With these clowns in charge, one simply couldn’t miss.
The man at the top of the ironically named Ministry of Justice these days is Christopher Grayling. He is a bloke who recently said,”Britain’s reoffending rates are shameful” and then went on to ignore every successful voluntary sector experiment…
View original post 1,227 more words
Filed under Uncategorized
Mark Bridger Found Guilty
Mark Bridger and Stuart Hazell
I’m not going to write too much about this, other than to point out that the murderer of April Jones viewed Child Sexual Abuse images before killing her and that the murderer of Tia Sharp likewise watched child pornography before he killed her.
Perhaps this is something that any man ‘curious’ about child pornography should consider before he runs an internet search. Curiosity can quickly become an addiction, an addiction becomes an obsession, and who knows where that obsession will lead you ?
If you accidentally come across Child Sexual Abuse images (child pornography) please bear in mind that you are looking at evidence of a crime and report it immediately to either the Internet Watch Foundation or CEOP.
Sub-Committee Review Of The White Report
Once again many thanks to Cathy who provided a link to the full review HERE.
A redacted version of The White Report can be accessed HERE
Ralph Morris: Castle Hill Report
Documents seized under warrant on 9th January by Operation Fernbridge officers included lists of visitors to Elm Guest House in Barnes. Among the visitors, who were part of a paedophile ring sexually abusing boys in the care of Richmond Council, was Ralph Morris, the headmaster of privately owned Castle Hill special school in Ludlow, Shropshire.
This is a surprisingly informative report.
Filed under Abuse, Fernbridge, News
Judge ‘Dreadful’ John Dixon
“Even after the former Tesco worker had been arrested and charged he carried on offending, the court heard”
So, Judge John Dixon jailed Francis Knight for 16 months (likely out in 8 months) after he admitted 18 charges of inciting boys aged under 14 to engage in sexual activity, and making indecent images of children.
He’s going to serve less than 15 days for each charge.
A paedophile stole teenage girls’ identities from Facebook and used them to persuade boys as young as nine to perform sex acts for him.
‘Manipulative’ Francis Knight, 31, who befriended his victims by posing as girls whose accounts he had either hacked or cloned, contacted as many as 250 children online, a court heard.
As Knight, from Portsmouth, was jailed for 16 months, it emerged one girl whose Facebook account he hacked was forced to change schools because of the stigma of the case.
The cases of six victims, aged from nine to 13, were outlined at Portsmouth Crown Court.
But Knight, described as ‘calculated and artful’ by a judge, admitted he had contacted around 250 youngsters over a period of two years.
Even after the former Tesco worker had been arrested and charged he carried on offending, the court heard.
Message from Ian Mulcahey, the police officer in charge of Operation Pallial.
Operation Pallial recently received an email, via a third party, from someone asking why some people were told about the Public Report being published in advance of April 29, while others with an interest in abuse in North Wales had not been contacted. We do not have a reply address to respond directly to the person, so felt it might be useful to share more generally what we are doing to keep those currently in contact with us, as victims or witnesses, informed. We thank those who have agreed to share this message with others who may be interested in Operation Pallial and we hope it also reaches the original person who contacted us.
~
Message from Ian Mulcahey, the police officer in charge of Operation Pallial.
While I am not able to confirm personal details of any individuals who may or may not have been contacted by members of Operation Pallial, for obvious reasons, I would like to share with you the basis on which we currently share or issue information.
Firstly, no information was provided to any victims in advance of the arrest of a man in Suffolk, as it would not be appropriate to announce police action publicly before it had taken place. We did issue a media release after the arrest and again after the man had been interviewed, to confirm that he was being released on bail while we continue to investigate.
As an investigation, following consultation with a number of organisations who represent or support victims, we were encouraged to provide victims who had come forward to Operation Pallial with advanced access to the Public Report on Progress, which was published on April 29.
We contacted everyone who had come forward to report abuse to us since November last year and informed them, in confidence, of the date and time that the report would be made public and how they could access and read it a few hours in advance if they wished to do so.
We have received positive feedback from victims, who appreciated being given advanced warning of the publicity generated by the report, together with an opportunity to see it; rather than hear extracts reported in the news media and online.
We were not selective in informing only a few of those who came forward; in fact we reached the vast majority of individuals in the week before the report was published.
If anyone feels, as a group or individually, that they would like more engagement with us, I would be happy to discuss this. Alternatively, you can approach the Children’s Commissioner for Wales, the NSPCC, Victim Support or the Chair of North Wales Police’s Independent Advisory Group and discuss your needs with them. All of these organisations and individuals meet regularly with myself and other members of Operation Pallial and we welcome feedback on all aspects of the investigation, including our communications.
We will continue to keep victims and witnesses as informed as possible throughout the investigation. Clearly there will be occasions, such as arrests, where this will not be possible.
Yours faithfully,
Ian Mulcahey,
Detective Superintendent, Operation Pallial
Facebook Backs Down
But only after advertisers begin to walk away.
Still, good news nonetheless.
Facebook is changing their policy on content endorsing rape and violence against women after a social media campaign
Campaign #FBRape, set up by activists, highlighted the flaw in the social network’s guidelines which banned hate speech but not offensive remarks regarding sexual assault.
Following the hugely successful campaign, which saw several companies pull their advertisements from Facebook, the website agreed to change their policies.
In a public statement, Facebook acknowledge their failure to block the offensive content and promised to train staff to be able to spot such posts in order to make Facebook a’ safe and respectful place for sharing and connection’.
‘The guidelines used by these systems have failed to capture all the content that violates our standards.
‘We need to do better — and we will,’ Facebook said in their statement.
Filed under News
Satanist Ritual Abuse And The Problem Of Credibility
It’s very interesting to talk to professionals and discover that not all agree with the report by Professor Jean la Fontaine, an anthropologist, who was appointed by Virginia Bottomley, the then Health Secretary, to research ‘Ritual Abuse’ in 1991. Some ask what the consequences of La Fontaine’s report have been over the last 20 years.
Satanist Ritual Abuse and the Problem of Credibility by Dr Joan Coleman
Do some satanists really commit crimes and abuse children? Many people believe not. My own hard-earned professional experience tells me otherwise.
This chapter is an account of my own journey: a journey from relative ignorance prior to 1980, through growing awareness of the extent of child sexual abuse, through my bizarre, frightening introduction to satanist ritual abuse, to my eventual belief that satanist crime does, indeed, occur. And I would like to think that mine is a reflective, rather than reflexive, belief (van der Hart & Nijenhuis, 1999) – that is, belief that stems from reflecting on the evidence, rather that blind acceptance of what initially seems highly improbable.
Ritual abuse evoked considerable interest in Britain between 1987 and 1994. The subject was taken up by many professionals, mainly psychologists, counsellors, and social workers; numerous children thought to be at risk were taken into care. In 1989, some of us who had encountered it formed an organisation called RAINS (Ritual Abuse Information Network & Support), with the aim of sharing information and supporting each other.
Ritual abuse can be found in a wide range of social and religious backgrounds. In this chapter, I focus on abuse within satanist groups, as that is the type that I myself and most RAINS members have largely encountered.
In 1990, the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC) issued a press release regarding the large number of such cases they were working with. There were numerous press articles and several television programmes. In 1991, Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley appointed an anthropologist, Professor Jean la Fontaine, to research the subjects of organised and ritual abuse. La Fontaine had already written an acclaimed book on child sexual abuse.
In the summary of her report, La Fontaine concluded that there was no evidence of satanist abuse and that the alleged disclosures of the children were largely suggested by adults. In those cases in which the police had found ‘satanic’ paraphernalia, she maintained that these were simply used by paedophiles to intimidate the children (Great Britain, Dept. of Health, 1994).
Largely as a result of this report, both the media and professionals became cautious about the subject of ritual abuse, and many shied away from it. Social workers were instructed not to mention the words ‘ritual’ or ‘satanic’ in any reports regarding child abuse.
Meanwhile, an increasing number of adults were seeking help with what they were convinced were genuine memories of severe and sadistic abuse that they had undergone as children. The recognition of the reality of child sexual abuse and its resulting psychological effects enabled adult survivors of satanist ritual abuse to feel some hope they would be believed. However, this was not always the case because when ceremonies and sacrifices were mentioned, these were dismissed by some psychiatrists as delusions and many survivors were given inappropriate treatment with antipsychotic drugs. The False Memory Syndrome Foundation (set up in 1992) and the British False Memory Society (set up in 1993) also contributed to the general attitude of scepticism among professionals, and the whole subject of ritual crime became ‘suspect’.
Incidentally, the reader may notice that I have been using the term ‘satanist’ rather than the more commonly used ‘satanic’. In my view, it is important to make this distinction because, although the alleged abuse may be done in the name of Satan, whom the abusers profess to worship, it is nonetheless people, not Satan, who are the abusers.
From ignorance, through uncertainty, to reflective belief
When I was working towards membership of the Royal College of Psychiatrists in the early 1970s, only a few days of the course were dedicated to the subject of sexual disorders, which included perversions and fetishisms, incest, and paedophilia. The latter was considered rare and usually referred to strange men preying on children singly, rather than in groups. When the existence of the Paedophile Information Exchange network was exposed less than a decade later, it was an eye-opener for many that a large number of professional people appeared to be abusing on an organised scale. Furthermore, most of us were still unaware of the extent of child sexual abuse by family members.
Satanist Ritual Abuse and the Problem of Credibility by Dr Joan Coleman
Fernbridge: A Critical Look At The ‘Mary Moss Docs’
Several months ago some documents, known by many as the’ Mary Moss docs’ found their way onto the internet. These documents were soon afterwards seized under warrant by the Operation Fernbridge police, following a raid. One particular document appeared to show a list of prominent visitors to Elm Guest House in Barnes, a place where boys from care homes, including Grafton Close, were taken and abused by men.
I’m going to look at three men named on that list in an effort to demonstrate why people looking into this need to be extremely wary about how they view these documents.
First, we’ll look at ‘Person A’. Like all of the three men, ‘Person A’ is well known.
‘Person A’ is gay though he has never come out of the closet. It is extremely likely that ‘Person A’ did visit the Elm Guest House, it was after all a gay guest house, a safe place for gay men to be themselves at a time, in the late 1970s, early 1980s, when social attitudes to homosexuality were markedly different from today. But I’m unaware of any evidence that ‘Person A’ ever abused young boys and I know people have looked very hard for evidence.
It must be very difficult for ‘Person A’. Not only has he lied about being gay in the past, he also would have to explain what he was doing at Elm Guest House, a place that has become synonymous with the abuse of boys.
So, problem number one when looking at those documents is that they may contain the names of men who had nothing to do with child abuse and who were unaware of what was going on at Elm Guest House.
Now, let’s look at ‘Person B’. ‘Person B’ almost certainly never visited Elm Guest House because, as I’ve already said, it was a place where young boys from care homes were abused, and ‘Person B’ was known to NAYPIC as a man who sexually abused young girls from a care home in a completely different part of London.
Two residents of the care home in question, and who are witnesses to abuse by ‘Person B’ at a ‘party’ in Brighton, exist but both have “moved on with their lives”. This has to be entirely respected and I hope those that read this will join me in wishing them well in the future. I only mention them in passing to demonstrate that ‘Person B’s’ abuse of young girls is not in any question in my own mind.
Patently, Operation Fernbridge, which seems specifically concerned with abuse at Elm Guest House is unlikely to arrest someone unconnected with their investigation. Nevertheless, it’s hard to feel any sympathy for ‘Person B’ being named on that list. It does, however, demonstrate another problem with the ‘list’, that it is not a definitive or even exclusive list of men who visited Elm Guest House.
The third man is ‘Person C’. ‘Person C’ did attend Elm Guest House and did abuse young boys there. Someone I trust without any hesitation has seen a photograph of ‘Person C’ in an extremely compromising situation with a young boy taken at Elm Guest House during a ‘Kings and Queens’ party. There is not anyone who I have talked to who has any degree of knowledge about what was going on who questions that ‘Person C was involved. ‘Person C’ is a child abuser and if there were any justice in this country he’d have already been arrested.
Anyway, I hope this helps people to understand that the ‘Mary Moss Docs’ should be looked at critically. In some areas they are misleading but in others they are correct.
Filed under Abuse, Fernbridge, News, Politics
Dishonoured.
I just hope Mr Brewer will be one of many that will be stripped of official honours both in life and in death.
Stuart Hall next please and then a few Lords !
Choirmaster Michael Brewer has been stripped of his OBE after being jailed for sexually abusing a pupil.
The 68-year-old was jailed for six years in March for indecently assaulting Frances Andrade more than three decades ago. She killed herself days after being subjected to a torrid cross-examination during his trial.
Today it emerged the Queen has formally ‘cancelled and annulled’ his honour, granted for services to music.
Judge Martin Rudland branded Brewer ‘a predatory sex offender’ who subjected Mrs Andrade to ‘depraved’ and sometimes daily abuse when she was 14 and 15.
Haut De La Garenne / Islington Connection
In 2008 when I visited Jersey, to give a presentation at a public meeting organised by Care Leavers, I met a survivor from Haut de la Garenne. This person said, when age 12, they had been on holiday to Islington children’s homes in 1976, described the home in Highbury, said 6 children went there and had photos of the holiday with trips to all the usual tourist sites. This person remembered having had a good time and from the pictures it certainly looked as if that was the case.
From the description I was not able to recognise the children’s home although the property was typical of the big houses around Highbury. However, this survivor was very concerned about the Islington children who went over to Haut de la Garenne at the same time, as they were split up between the four sections of the children’s home and not kept together. Some other Jersey survivors spoke to me of going to the New Forest for camping holidays as well as going on trips to the other Channel Islands.
In Islington ‘disadvantaged’ children were sent on holidays to a place in Suffolk called Eye. This was called the Islington/Suffolk Project and I became involved in an investigation with police when Peter Righton, already convicted of possessing abusive images of children, was living with his partner on a big country estate where the children were sent. I was told there was a sign outside the estate saying ‘28,000 Islington children have had holidays here’.
In Islington, some children made trips to Nick Rabet’s activity centre in Sussex. He was the deputy manager of one of the Islington homes and he also owned this activity centre. Groups of children were taken there. Later he was convicted in Thailand of abuse of 30 boys.
I became aware of other ‘trips’ to areas outside London – Cambridge ,Canvey Island, Blackpool and Brighton were among the destinations. As a senior social worker managing a team, I asked many questions at the time; Who sanctioned the trip? Who paid for it? Did the parents know? Where did they stay? There were clear council protocols for approving holidays and trips for children in care. Once, after I had long left Islington’s employment, I was listening to Talk Radio and heard an Islington survivor speak of being taken to children’s homes all across the country, being sexually exploited and abusive images were taken. This made me very sad as it was what I had strongly suspected was happening but had not been able to prove at the time.
I also remember that in 1992, just as I was leaving my post in Islington, a solicitor was appealing in the newspapers for help from people who went on Islington council holidays in the early 80s as he was investigating allegations of child sexual abuse.
Such ‘holidays’ provide a picture of the extent of organised networks of sexual crime against children and so are very important in assisting police investigation.
Dr Liz Davies
Reader in Child Protection
London Metropolitan University
Exclusive: Met Police launch nationwide child abuse investigation into Catholic order
Over the last two weeks the Met Police Child Abuse Investigation Command has been secretly running a new investigation into alleged child abuse involving former schoolboys who went to primary and secondary schools run by the Roman Catholic Salesian Order in England and Scotland.
Some 23 alleged victims have already contacted in one of the biggest operations since Operation Yewtree which involved Jimmy Savile and Operation Fernbridge investigation into sexual abuse at Elm Guest House in Barnes – including tracing people who had left the country for Thailand.
The full story is revealed today in The People (http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/paedo-probe-catholic-schools-20-1911825) and Exaro News( http://www.exaronews.com/articles/4979/met-investigates-catholic-order-s-schools-over-child-sex-abuse ). It is known to involve at least 30 victims and 20 priests and teachers, some of whom are now dead, and stretching back some 50 years. Some of the figures were prominent members of the Order which was set up in London in the late…
View original post 497 more words
Filed under Uncategorized
theneedleblog 