Survivors News and Reviews

Yesterday seven men were jailed for operating a paedophile ring abusing girls, some of whom had attempted to report to police or social services but were turned away. The BBC has the general report here . The Guardian followed up with its own take here plus one of their Comment Is Free columns has been written by an abuse survivor, on 14th May 2013 – that’s here. The Independent also had a general interview with one of the victims here.

Over the weekend video of the police breaking in to rescuse the three abductees Cleveland was released. Following the kidnapper’s charging and the reaction of his family, the women have since appealed for privacy, showing the media has learned zero from Jaycee Lee Dugard’s rescue and return in how to treat victims of this specific kidnap and abuse situation. Channel 4 news In England had a good discussion about it late last week which you can view here. (Flash required)

Comedian Jimmy Tarbuck, who at the height of his fame appeared more often on Independent Television (ITV) in the UK than the BBC, was the latest person to be interviewed by the police in their enquiry.

The BBC has the story here but the risk is that the parallel enquiry to that of Jimmy Savile may end up in an enquiry of its own if their approach will be to fry everyone in the press before charges are brought, and to use Stuart Hall’s admission as an excuse to tar everyone with the same brush.

The Head of the US Air Force’s Taskforce designed to try to reduce sexual assault in its ranks was arrested and charged with groping a woman.

Since the Air Force has removed him from his post whilst the charges take their course, it’s not as much of a PR disaster as the media thinks. These are tax-funded positions and the officials abusing soldiers, marines, sailors or air force personnel have been promoted, allowed to stay and build up taxpayer-funded fiefdoms where their abuse goes unpunished. Hopefully the Air Force will go a little further than this easy slam-dunk of a case and continue to hunt down the offenders in its ranks, unless it wants more lawsuits from ex-forces personnel.

The BBC story is here.

Normally you read “Like X for Charity Y” all the time on Facebook, or you have encouragement to change your profile picture. I’ve always thought this gesture did nothing to help anyone in a practical sense. Now Unicef agrees, launching its “Likes Don’t Save Lives” campaign.

It’s not about child abuse directly and Unicef might leave itself open to criticism if its admin costs are judged to be too high, but otherwise makes a relevant point. The Verge.com has the story here.

(Editor’s Note – My apologies, I was offline and unable to approve this post by CBK until today.)

As three women abducted as teenage girls are freed from their captors in Ohio, the Daily Mail has printed an excellent retrospective of similar cases, including Shawn Hornbeck and dating back to Steven Stayner’s case in the 1970s. Read that here.  The BBC has the main story here.

William Roache, an actor in the 50 year old English soap opera Coronation Street since its first episode over 50 years ago, was first accused of and has now been charged with rape following an allegation dating back to 1967. The BBC has the story here but until the conclusion of any trial, there’s not much else to report.

Stuart Hall, 83 year old former BBC Broadcaster, has admitted the historical indecent assaults he was accused of last year. The BBC has the story here and generally check Google News for other reactions.

The Independent newspaper in England has provided some of the most authoritative coverage of the long-standing North Wales Care Home child abuse scandal dating back from the 1970s onwards.

The paper has followed up with extra reporting after 76 of the 140 recorded cases were revealed to be brand new, following earlier general coverage. That story is here and see the previous coverage in the links in the central column starting with the police announcement in video here.

Two people that posted images online which were claimed to be Robert Thompson and John Venables, the 1993 murderers of two year old James Bulger, as adults, received suspended sentences in the other big story from last week.

Our views on revenge of any kind following child abuse are well known and it’s a bigger concern that the people in the pictures are completely innocent. Of the two killers, Venables has been returned to prison since July 2010 so it’s even less likely that the pictures are correct. This is the unfortunate side of Facebook and Twitter gossip, which has been assumed to be fact with no checks or balances whatsoever.

The BBC has the story here.