Operation Yew Tree, the police investigation into sexual abuse allegations, predominantly the abuse of children, against various well known characters from the entertainment world, and elsewhere, has been throwing up several surprising names (rightly or wrongly). The case of Jimmy Savile, after his death, was one of the first, and was well and truly chewed over in the press. Other names have followed, latest amazingly being Cliff Richard, who has stated that the accusation, about an incident many years ago, is entirely false.
Recently I'm reading of investigations in the South Yorkshire city of Rotherham, which are, if it's possible, even more disturbing. See also this, published in the USA. Police are now investigating a huge child abuse scandal covering the span from 1997 to 2013, involving, allegedly, 1400 children, mainly white, with the abusers mainly British young males of Pakistani ethnicity.
These batches of revelations make me wonder if there's some astrological catalyst present in the UK right now. The national chart some astrologers use for the UK can be seen at the website of Peter Morrell, here. Using that chart, Britain has Sun in Capricorn and Aries rising. At present Pluto transits Capricorn and Uranus transits Aries. Pluto is a consummate house-cleaner and abscess burster, and appears to be doing its job efficiently, while Uranus throws up shock after ever more surprising shock.
These horrors have not been confined to Rotherham either, according to this piece.
I find it hard to contemplate these things, I really do.
Not all of the incidents involving well-known names will be found to be valid complaints. Most are made after decades of time have passed since the alleged acts. A mist of suspicion will remain over these names though.
In the case of the investigations in Rotherham, it has been said that steps were not taken earlier by the authorities for fear of their being labelled "racist". That is simply a pathetic excuse to my mind. It doesn't matter what race or colour a perpetrator of abuse on a child is - they must be brought to justice, and promptly! There's something very much "off" in this story. There has to be something more, something we're not told, for things to have reached the level of atrocity that's now being reported.
What the heck is, and has been, going on in the UK? The country has never been perfect by any stretch of the imagination, no country is; but Britain's reputation has never descended to this sordid level at any time in the past that I can recall.
I've been reading about the sexual abuse scandals in the UK and elsewhere. The floodgates opened in the USA about two decades ago, with apparent leaks three decades past, so I've become accustomed to the profligate accusations, denials, and convictions.
ReplyDeleteA surprising twist of the past several years in the USA has been the scandals involving female teachers as perpetrators. And thanks to the digital era, most of the evidence is documented. Another reality is the sex-slave industry that has come into the light of day.
I imagine that sexual abuse of all types has been part of the human existence. The burden is always upon the victim, with denials so easily proffered by the abuser. It has become more difficult to deny the accusations when DNA evidence or digital correspondence is involved, though the perpetrators don't seem deterred by the possibility of leaving evidence.
India, Africa, and the Mideast have been spotlighted in recent years with their gang-rapes and war-rapes of children, women, and men. Several of these cultures consider the victims to be tarnished and outcasts.
There have been several instances in TX where an adult has been allowed to buy their way out of a sex with a minor conviction. The settlement is between lawyers and lawyers have client privileges providing immunity from the authorities. Lawyers do not have to notify the authorities as other citizens are required. The state cannot proceed with legalities, if the victim is not willing to testify and desires a settlement in lieu. Disgusting!
It may be astonishing to read these accusations, but this dark reality has always been there waiting for exposure. I'm glad that the time has arrived to open this Pandora's box of secrets.
P.S. - I have read numerous times that male-male rape in the USA is more prevalent than heterosexual rape.
ReplyDelete"The Department of Justice's report (2008) leads to a conclusion that in the U.S. more men are raped than women. About 216,000 inmates were sexually assaulted while serving time. In recent studies 4.5% of 16 and 17-year-olds in adult prison and 4.7% of those in jail reported being the victims of sexual abuse."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Male_rape
mike ~ Sexual abuse, of all kinds, has always been around in the undergrowth of human existence - yes - in common with the rest of the "deadly sins".
ReplyDeleteI'm pretty sure that some of the accusations in the UK (against the entertainment biz people) didn't involve young females, but young males.
What I find extra shocking about these multiple incidences only now coming to light in the UK, is that nothing was done about them nearer the time of their happening.
I gather from some comments by people in the US (commenting on reports in US media) that they have the impression that rape of all kinds has always been tolerated in the UK, much more so than in the USA. That the British aristocracy and wealthy, powerful individuals claim it as almost a right. This, up to a point, is nonsense - at least in the 20th and 21st century.
But something has been dreadfully wrong in both those instances involving well known individuals from entertainment world, and the incidences in Rotherham and other cities.
The latter, on further reading, seems more like wholesale sex slave trafficking. In which case it's possible some of the police and authorities could have been "in on it" and partaking of the trade, therefore declining to prosecute.
Don't know. It's sickening!
I very much doubt that this is to do with the police worrying about being thought racist (since when has that bothered them?). It's far more likely to have been caused by a culture of disrespecting victims of rape and sexual abuse.
ReplyDeleteVanilla Rose ~ I thought that too, but maybe the idea related more to "big-wigs" of local authorities, and courts than to police. Even then it seems like a weak excuse. Your view could be the right one, or, and I fancy this one - that the whole Rotherham thing is the tip of a huge market of sex-trafficking, which, if thoroughly investigated, might involve outing some of the after-hours doings of certain of the said "big-wigs", court officials, lawyers, police officers....
ReplyDeleteSo they communally swept it under the carpet.