FINAL MESSAGE: Women executed in Iran for killing a man who was sexually assaulted her

FINAL MESSAGE: Women executed in Iran for killing a man who was sexually assaulted her

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/final-message-of-woman-executed-in-iran-for-killing-attempted-rapist-dear-mum-dont-cry-9820117.html

HONEY BOO BOO : Anna Marie Caldwell says her mother's boyfriend abused her

HONEY BOO BOO : Anna Marie Caldwell says her mother's boyfriend abused her!!

Read here
http://www.franchiseherald.com/articles/11137/20141027/here-comes-honey-boo-canceled.htm

A BIKER'S STORY: This man tells the world his BIG SECRET, it brought me to tears (video)

VIDEO: This man tells the world his BIG SECRET, it brought me to tears. ‏

watch video here https://www.facebook.com/video.php?v=721581861224059

or on youtube

Children's homes were 'supply line' for paedophiles, says ex-minister

Courtesy Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour  http://www.theguardian.com/society/2014/jul/08/children-homes-supply-line-paedophiles-lord-warner

 

Lord Warner says an inquiry he conducted in 1992 showed how children's homes were targeted by powerful people

 

Powerful people in the 1980s targeted children's homes that served as a "supply line" for paedophiles, a former health minister has claimed.
As a former child protection manager warned that a "powerful elite" of at least 20 prominent figures carried out the "worst form of abuse", the former health minister Lord Warner described the sexual abuse of children as a "power drive".
Warner, a health minister in 2003-07 who conducted an inquiry into child abuse in Birmingham in 1992, spoke out after the home secretary, Theresa May, announced a national inquiry into how the authorities may have ignored child abuse at Westminster.
The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said the government's approach had been dilatory and piecemeal. He said: "The inquiry needs to recommend child protection measures for the future. If the government does all those things, we will support them."
He said: "They have been slow and piecemeal getting to this point. I think victims and others need to be able to give testimony and give their evidence.
"It is vital that the inquiry is sufficiently comprehensive and over-arching. The important thing is to get at the truth to get at justice, to get what happened in institutions, and to get the right answers for the future. The appalling examples of child protection abuse we have seen must never be allowed to happen again."
MPs on the home affairs select committee will question Mark Sedwill, the home office's permanent secretary, on Tuesday afternoon over the loss of 114 potentially relevant files on child abuse dating back to the 1980s.
Warner said his inquiry in 1992 showed how children's homes were targeted by powerful paedophiles. He told the Today programme on BBC Radio 4: "Some of these children's homes were targeted by people in power, powerful people. Indeed, sexual abuse of children is a power drive. That's what a lot of it is about.
"It is possible that people who were authoritative, powerful in particular communities did sometimes have access to children's homes. We know for historical purposes that children's homes were a supply line sometimes."
Warner, a director of social services in Kent in the 1980s, said insufficient action was taken to deal with child abuse in that decade because there was "disbelief in the public mind".
He said: "It is pretty distasteful stuff. Society has found it difficult to come to terms with this … We still had an air of deference about people in authority.
"A cover-up means something is very organised. I think much more of this is about people being insensitive to some of these concerns and not being as preoccupied with protecting vulnerable people – children and adults."
Peter McKelvie, a former child protection manager whose allegations about child abuse led to a police inquiry in 2012, claimed that at least 20 prominent people abused children.
McKelvie told BBC2's Newsnight: "I believe that there is strong evidence – and an awful lot of information that can be converted into evidence if it is investigated properly – that there has been an extremely powerful elite amongst the highest levels of the political classes for as long as I am alive, and I am 65.
"There has been sufficient reason to investigate it over and over again, certainly for the last 30 years. There has always been the block and the cover-up and the collusion to prevent that happening."
He added: "For the first time I have got a belief that survivors will come forward and justice will be served for a lot of survivors. Unfortunately it has been left so late that a lot of the abusers are now dead.
"We are looking at the Lords, we are looking at the Commons, we are looking at the judiciary, we are looking at all institutions where there will be a small percentage of paedophiles and a slightly larger percentage of people who have known about it but have felt that in terms of their own self-interest and self-preservation and for political party reasons it's been safer for them to cover it up rather than deal with it."
McKelvie, who served as a child protection manager in Hereford and Worcester, worked on the conviction of Peter Righton, a founding member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE). Righton, who has since died, was convicted of importing child pornography. McKelvie told police in 2012 that West Mercia police had seven boxes of evidence including letters between Righton and other alleged paedophiles.
On Monday, May told the Commons she was establishing a public inquiry into how complaints of sexual abuse were treated, and sometimes ignored, in public bodies over several decades.
Ministers had been holding out against such a sweeping inquiry, but, facing charges of an establishment cover-up, succumbed and promised there would be no no-go areas for the investigation.
The inquiry will be able to examine the files of the security services and allegations that the Tory whips' office in the 1970s may have suppressed allegations of child abuse by members of the parliamentary party. It is also expected to take some evidence from victims.
Labour MPs pointed to a 1985 BBC documentary in which a former government whip between 1970 and 1973 said the Tory whips' office, when faced by an MP involved in "a scandal with small boys", would get him out of trouble, partly so the MP then felt obliged in the future to carry out the bidding of the whips.
May said she would look at plans, backed in principle by the Labour MP Tom Watson, to require public servants to report allegations of child abuse to officials in a form of mandatory whistleblowing. A duty to report would place some form of culpability on a public official if they knowingly withheld information concerning suspected child abuse.

Former Baby P child protection chief Sharon Shoesmith says SHE is a 'victim'

PANORAMA PROGRAMME BBC 1: Former Baby P child protection chief Sharon Shoesmith says SHE is a 'victim'

Courtesy of Daily Mail http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2810822/Former-Baby-P-child-protection-chief-Sharon-Shoesmith-says-victim.html

Former Baby P child protection chief Sharon Shoesmith says SHE is a 'victim' because she cannot get a job following 2007 killing
The former head of children's services at the council which failed to save Baby P from being tortured to death has claimed she was a 'victim' of the scandal.
Sharon Shoesmith defended Haringey Council despite its abject failure to prevent the death of the 17-month old, who was killed in August 2007 by his mother's sadistic boyfriend and his paedophile brother.
But last night Mrs Shoesmith claimed she was a 'victim' of the case. She said: 'Peter was a victim of male child homicide, but you know we have all been victims in this.'
Appearing on BBC's Newsnight she revealed she had not worked since 2008, despite applying for 'several hundred jobs'.
She said: 'You can't simply sack people. I think there needs to be an honest process. The real issue here is about familial child homicide.'
Last year it emerged Mrs Shoesmith was awarded nearly £680,000 for unfair dismissal after Ed Balls sacked her in December 2008 during the height of public outrage over the killing.
Mrs Shoesmith attacked the way she was sacked. She said: 'When you have public accountability and harm to children then the result is explosive. You can't be accountable to a public that have been told lies.
'You can't have these kneejerk reactions. You have got to have some sort of process.'
Baby P, whose real name was Peter Connelly, was just 17 months old in 2007 when he was found dead in his blood-spattered cot at his mother's flat in Tottenham, north London, after suffering 50 separate injuries, including a broken back.
His mother Tracey Connelly, who was jailed in 2009 for allowing her son Peter to be tortured to death by her boyfriend Steven Barker and his brother Jason Owen.
Connelly was released from County Durham's Low Newton jail at the end of October. Probation officers ruled though the woman was still a danger to children, she is no longer a danger to the public.
The case provoked a national scandal after it emerged that social workers, police and doctors missed a series of warning signs that could have saved the child's life.
Baby Peter had been seen by a string of social workers, police and health professionals, but they failed to take him into care. He had been on the 'at risk' register for months when he died.
Connelly's boyfriend was a sadistic neo-Nazi who raped a two-year-old girl, tortured his own grandmother and is suspected of sex attacks on other children.
His brother was a crack cocaine addict and convicted arsonist who was accused of raping a girl of 11.
In the wake of his death, Ofsted published a damning report which exposed deep failings in Mrs Shoesmith's department.
Haringey council also failed to save tragic eight-year-old Victoria Climbie who was killed in 2000 after being beaten, burned and tortured by her great aunt.
Marie Therese Kouao and her boyfriend Carl Manning claimed she was possessed and were found guilty of her murder in 2001.
During her Newsnight interview, broadcast last night, she admitted that the number of mistakes made had been 'breathtaking when you look at it all together', but refused to describe the failures as 'serious'.
'It depends how you're going to define serious. What is a serious failure?' she asked.
'I believe I took responsibility and I believe that I was entirely accountable to my role.'
Haringey Council's failure to investigate his mother's lies meant Peter and eight other children were left inside their squalid home in North London.
Peter and his three sisters were sharing the four-bedroom house with their mother, her boyfriend Barker, his paedophile brother
Owen and his four children, plus Owen's 15-year-old girlfriend.
Three of the children - Peter and two of his siblings - were on Haringey's Child Protection Register because of fears they were being neglected by their mother.
Social workers, health visitors and doctors saw the family 60 times before 17-month-old Peter died from his horrific injuries, which included a snapped spine and eight broken ribs.
But none of these professionals realised that two men were living in the house, despite a family support official meeting 6ft 4in Barker during a home visit.
The most basic check into their backgrounds would have revealed that Barker had been prosecuted by the RSPCA for abusing animals, and that he and his brother were investigated for torturing their own grandmother.
Owen, who changed his name after a family row, has a string of convictions for burglaries, arson and assault, and was accused of raping an 11-year-old when he was only 13.
Barker and Owen were both convicted of causing or allowing Peter's death after he was found dead in 2007.
Barker was given 12 years while Owen was handed an indeterminate sentence but told he would be eligible for parole in three years.
Connelly admitted allowing her son's death and was also given an indeterminate sentence. Her five-year minimum tariff means she
would be eligible for release in 2012.
At a subsequent trial in April, Barker was given a life sentence for the rape of the two-year-old, with a 20-year minimum.

HOW THE BOOK 'MOMMIE DEAREST' CHANGED MY LIFE

POST COMING SOON....

WOMAN EXECUTED IN IRAN FOR KILLING MAN WHO TRIED TO SEXUALLY ASSAULT HER

WOMAN EXECUTED IN IRAN FOR KILLING MAN WHO TRIED TO SEXUALLY ASSAULT HER

Courtesy of
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/middle-east/reyhaneh-jabbari-executed-iran-hangs-woman-for-murder-of-her-alleged-attempted-rapist-9817712.html

Reyhaneh Jabbari executed in Iran for murder of 'her attempted rapist'

Iran has executed Reyhaneh Jabbari for killing a man she says had tried to rape her despite an international campaign calling for a reprieve.

Ms Jabbari’s mother Shole Pakravan confirmed her death to BBC Persian. She said her 26-year-old daughter was hanged in a Tehran prison and she was due to see her daughter’s body at the cemetery today.
Her death was described as a "travesty" by Amnesty International.

Amnesty said Ms Pakravan received a call from prison authorities on Friday, where she was told to visit her daughter for the final time before her execution at dawn on Saturday. She was granted an hour with Ms Jabbari before being made to leave.
Ms Jabbari was arrested in 2007 for the killing of Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi, a former employee of Iran’s Ministry of Intelligence who she said tried to sexually abuse her.

Read more: Iran to execute woman for murder
Iran postpones execution of woman

She was sentenced to death by a Tehran court in 2009 and her execution verdict was upheld by Iran’s Supreme Court. Her case drew international outcry and sparked a petition urging her release, which collected over 240,000 signatures.
The court ruling says Ms Jabbari, 26, stabbed Sarbandi in the back in 2007 after purchasing a knife two days earlier.
It says the execution was carried out after Sarbandi's family refused to pardon Jabbari or accept blood money.
The campaign and world-wide media attention granted her a last minute stay of execution on 30 September, although the reason for the postponement was never officially confirmed.
Amnesty understands Ms Jabbari admitted to stabbing the man once from the back but said another man killed Mr Abdolali Sarbandi. The group said her claim is believed to have never been properly investigated.
Raha Bahreini, Amnesty’s researcher on Iran, told The Independent: "Like many others, we are absolutely shocked by this travesty of justice. Reyhaneh’s execution is a tragic moment for many people in Iran and for the members of the international community hoping for different outcome.
"Her case personifies the outrage of many in Iran and across the globe over the use of the death penalty, which is a despicable, cruel and inhumane punishment.

"Reports and online petitions have been crying for her retrial because of the many unanswered questions hanging over her case. But at the end they once again allowed the execution and justified this by saying it lies in the hands of the family of the deceased to make the decision to spare her."
Britain has said it is "concerned and saddened" by the execution of an Iranian woman for killing a man she claimed was trying to sexually assault her.

Foreign Office minister Tobias Ellwood said there were "questions around due process" in the case of 26-year-old Reyhaneh Jabbari, who was hanged in a Tehran prison.

He also warned that such actions would not help Iran revive relations with the rest of the world.

TLC CHANNEL CANCELS HONEY BOO BOO AFTER REVELATIONS MAMA JUNE IS DATING CONVICTED CHILD MOLESTER

TLC ends production on 'Honey Boo Boo' after photos circulate of mama june in bed with convicted paedophile

Courtesy of Breeanna Hare, CNN http://edition.cnn.com/2014/10/24/showbiz/tv/honey-boo-boo-tlc/

 

CNN) -- TLC's "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" is ending its run.

On Friday, TMZ reported that the network has canceled the series in light of claims that the program's newly separated matriarch, June "Mama June" Shannon, is dating Mark Anthony McDaniel, a man who served 10 years in prison after being convicted of aggravated child molestation in 2004 and who is a registered sex offender.

Shannon said the reports that she's dating McDaniel are "totally untrue" but confirmed that "as of right now, there will be no more production of the show."

Speculation that "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" was headed for cancellation began Thursday, when some outlets reported that the show's future was in jeopardy because of Shannon's alleged relationship with McDaniel.

In a statement, TLC said that it was "very concerned about this new information" and was "reassessing the future of the series."

As rumors about her romantic life flew, Shannon tried to clear them up with a post on the personal Facebook page of daughter Alana "Honey Boo Boo" Thompson.

Honey Boo Boo nearly smacks Dr. Drew

"I want to make a post trying to clear up the rumors," Shannon said Thursday. "(R)emember you can't believe everything you read! (People) sell stories to the tabloid everyday that r false! It isnt true i promise my kids r #1 priority over anything else and I would never put them in danger period over this or anything else they r my life this is my past I left him 10 yrs ago for it and I wouldn't go back."

TLC began "Here Comes Honey Boo Boo" in August 2012 as a spinoff of its child pageant reality show, "Toddlers & Tiaras." Alana Thompson was one of "Tiaras' " breakout stars, and "Honey Boo Boo" was launched to follow the spunky kid and her family at their Georgia home.

The series, which also starred Alana Thompson's three older sisters and her dad, Mike "Sugar Bear" Thompson, averaged 2.4 million viewers an episode in its first season, establishing itself as a reality TV hit. The show's fourth season wrapped up in August with 1.8 million viewers.

Rumors about the show's future were already floating in September, after Shannon's separation from partner "Sugar Bear" Thompson.

Now, with production ceased, Shannon is focused on gratitude.

"We just want to thank from the bottom of our hearts the support that we've had from our fans since May 2012," she said in a separate Facebook post set up to answer questions from fans. "This experience has been awesome to us. ... Me and Sugar (Bear) really have broken up, but we are friends. We're better off friends than we were a couple. Things happen for a reason in life, and you live and learn."

CNN's Lisa Respers France contributed to this report.

Police issue CCTV of man after sex attack on schoolgirl in Bethnal Green

SHARE THIS STORY AND CCTV IMAGE SO THIS PERVERT CAN BE CAUGHT
Police issue CCTV of man after sex attack on schoolgirl in Bethnal Green


Courtesy of Mike Brooke http://www.eastlondonadvertiser.co.uk/news/crime-court/police_issue_cctv_of_man_after_sex_attack_on_schoolgirl_in_bethnal_green_1_3819725

A schoolgirl was sexually assaulted in her home in London’s East End by a bogus caller claiming to be a plumber.

Detectives investigating the attack at a maisonette in Bethnal Green have today issued a picture of a man they want to question who was seen leaving the building soon after.
The trickster had rung the intercom at Gwilym Maries House in Canrobert Street, off Bethnal Green Road, at 6.30pm on May 13, saying he had a delivery and was let into the block, Scotland Yard has confirmed.
The youngster, who was at home with another schoolgirl, then opened her front-door to the man who claimed to be a plumber and had come to fix the washing machine.
The man said he needed the toilet and went upstairs, followed by the girl—then pushed her into a bedroom and attacked her.
“The girl has been utterly traumatised by what happened to her,” Det Con Dean Simpson said. “Officers are working with her family to support her.
“We are keen to speak to a man seen leaving the block around that time who may know something essential to our investigation.”
Detectives believe he went to a nearby minicab office and was driven to St Stephen’s Road, a mile-and-a-half away in Old Ford.
The man, whose picture has been taken from the minicab office CCTV, is thought to be Bengali, in his 30s, and is described as having short, dark hair, wearing a light-coloured short-sleeved shirt and dark trousers at the time and carrying a small satchel.
The Met’s Sexual Offences, Exploitation & Child Abuse Investigation Command is appealing for anyone recognising him to call Det Con Simpson on 020-8733 5999, or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800-555111.

The BBC's Michael Buerk needs to apologise to victims of rape!

Ched Evans' victim was drunk and deserves no credit, says BBC's Michael Buerk

Courtesy of Anita Singh - the Telegraph http://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/uknews/ched-evans-victim-was-drunk-and-deserves-no-credit-says-bbcs-michael-buerk/ar-BBaByp9?ocid=mailsignout

The BBC has apologised after presenter Michael Buerk claimed the victim in the Ched Evans rape case emerged with no credit because she was "so drunk she could barely stand".
Buerk made his comments in a trailer for BBC Radio 4 programme The Moral Maze.
He did not say that Evans had raped his victim, only that he "had sex with her" in sordid circumstances.
Evans, a former Sheffield United player, was released from prison last week after serving half of a five-year sentence for raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel. The girl had been drinking before one of Evans's friends picked her up and took her back to the hotel.
In the trailer, broadcast during Radio 4's Today programme, Buerk said: "Nobody comes out of the Ched Evans rape case with any credit - not the victim who'd drunk so much she could barely stand, nor the two footballers who had sex with her in the most sordid of circumstances.
"The jury convicted only one of rape and now, after serving half his five-year sentence, ashamed but unrepentant, Ched Evans has been released and there is talk of a £500,000 contract to return to his club, Sheffield United.
"But the internet is aflame. The victim, hiding like an IRA informer in official anonymity, is being hounded by internet trolls.
"So is Evans's girlfriend, abused as a gold-digger for standing by him. 150,000 have signed an online petition calling for the club not to have him back, but the fans chant 'Super Ched Evans' at home games - a very modern moral mess.
"Difficult, incendiary questions about consent, remorse, atonement, the heightened moral responsibility of public figures, but it all boils down to one question: should Ched Evans play again for the Blades?"
_{Ched Evans's girlfriend, Natasha Massey, has been criticised for standing by him}
A BBC spokesman apologised for the wording used by Buerk. The corporation has received nine complaints from listeners so far.
"There was no intention to suggest that the victim was in any way at fault, and we apologise if the way this live trail was phrased suggested this," the spokesman said.
"Tonight's Moral Maze will ask whether a convicted rapist who maintains his innocence should be entitled to get his job back."
Buerk is the latest presenter to wade into the controversy over Evans's release.
Judy Finnigan caused outrage when she also said the victim had "had far too much to drink", and that "the rape was not violent".

Why are we letting vile paedophiles win and go free?

Why are we letting vile paedophiles win and go free?

Courtesy of the daily mirror - Alison Phillips says unfortunately it's a good week for paedophiles but a bad week for Britain http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/letting-vile-paedophiles-win-go-4478525?ICID=FB_mirror_main

It’s lollipops all round for ­Britain’s paedophiles this week as the guy supposedly ­responsible for catching them admits many won’t be charged.
Keith Bristow, head of the National Crime Agency, expects that of the 50,000 Brits who have accessed vile pictures of kids being abused, it’s just “unrealistic” to bring them all to justice.
Quite how many he’ll be able to track down then drag through our slow and cumbersome justice system isn’t clear. Let us hope his officers can make it into double figures. Certainly Labour believe the “vast majority” will walk away scot free.
And it is a national scandal.
Because let’s remember, the whole point of internet abuse of kids is that it isn’t just images. It is reality. For every cyber image there is a real child somewhere being put through the very worst kind of hell.
But to bring an end to their misery. Well that, it emerges, is just “unrealistic”.
Some may argue Mr Bristow is right to concentrate his efforts chiefly on just “the most risky” offenders. But anyone who accesses this filth is a child abuser. They watch it. They fuel it. They make it happen.
And of course there is much evidence they are also likely to carry it out themselves on victims closer to hand.
And abuse of a child – either virtual or in reality – is never a brief thing, however quick it may appear on screen. It leads most
often to a lifetime of misery, self-destructive behaviour, broken ­relationships, crime and unemployability.
And in economic terms, with that comes a cost. So maybe the Government doesn’t want to pick up the tab for safeguarding these children from abuse now.
Well they’ll sure as hell be picking it up in future when the abused child ends up in care, unable to work, in poor health and with all the other almost inevitable social problems.

Perhaps Mr Bristow should be praised for a rare outbreak of honesty in a public figure. Certainly it is a direct challenge to the Home Office to sort out its priorities.
Yet the scandal seems to have been dismissed by Home Secretary Theresa May with a shoulder shrug while her cronies continue banging on about the EU.
There is no reason why every single one of the 50,000 people involved could not be actively pursued. If the Home Office wanted to. If the will, supported by funding, was there, these men (and they are largely men) would be tracked down and brought to justice. Yes, that would mean funding being redirected from other inquiries but show me a priority that you would put above the abuse of children?
Child pornography has become a modern plague spreading across the internet into homes around the globe. I still cannot understand why the service providers are unable to design better antidotes to this plague. Now I’m even more bewildered as to why we as a nation have given up on trying to stop its spread.
There is instead to be more emphasis on “preventative measures” to help young people becoming victims of these perverts.
So once again the onus lies with the victims to shape up and keep themselves out of trouble. And that’s fine. But
not enough.
Power is about priorities. About making choices.
And our Home Secretary has chosen for our police to allow these creeps to carry on abusing.
Like I said, good week for paedophiles. Bad week for Britain.

Her Name Was Reeva Steenkamp

RIP REEVA STEENKAMP - Her Name Was Reeva Steenkamp

Courtesy of Kat Lister - The Huffington Post http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/kat-lister/reeva-steenkamp-simon-jenkins_b_6021076.html

I'm going to start by naming the victim. Her name was Reeva Steenkamp. I'm starting with Reeva because, like so many female victims of violence and abuse, her name has been lost, worse still: voluntarily disregarded. In a Twittersphere where language is edited and words counted and capped, it is language that has most shocked me today, the day that Oscar Pistorious was sentenced to five years for the 'culpable homicide' of his girlfriend, Reeva. He will probably only serve 10 months.
If you think the South African judiciary system has failed Reeva, it has company: language has failed her too. It fails women time and time again. In South Africa, a woman is killed by domestic violence on average every eight hours. In the UK, on average, 2 women a week are killed by a current or former male partner. Yet how often do we speak their names?
This very question racked my brain when reading today's Guardian piece entitled 'Oscar Pistorius should not be going to jail'. I had to read it twice, thrice and then again. I read it out loud, I read it in my head, I shouted it at my husband for good measure. 'Men such as Pistorius have had their lives ruined...' There it was again. Perhaps I was reading out of context, I thought? I kept reading, Simon Jenkins kept omitting: '...No one will be more or less "deterred" by the length of his jail sentence. Finding why he behaved as he did, and working to prevent others doing likewise, would be the most useful outcome of his crime.'
His jail sentence, his crime, his life, his guilt. The language of the perpetrator is everywhere, yet the language of the victim is nowhere to be found. 439 words and Reeva isn't named once, referred to singularly at the beginning with poetic abandon: 'He killed his girlfriend.' What we have here is an insensitively-timed rumination on prison reform at the expense of a 'girlfriend' Simon Jenkins didn't even have the consideration to name. Spectacular timing in a year when it was revealed around 90% of all reports of domestic violence to police forces in England and Wales are taken no further.
I would love to conclude that Simon Jenkins' words are an isolated occurrence, but I know the truth is that they aren't. You only have to google the name 'Ched Evans' to realise it is the male narrative that dominates our media outlets. The former Sheffield United striker was jailed in 2012 after being convicted of raping a 19-year-old woman in a hotel. Over the last few weeks following his subsequent release, our language has once again been saturated with 'he': His jail sentence, his life, his proclaimed innocence. Another victim lost, another headline: 'Like all rapists, Ched Evans will never be really free'. The same could be said for Ched's 22-year-old victim, forced to change her name and move house after her true identity was outed by internet trolls. Ched's victim was named 6,000 times alongside labels such as 'slag', 'tramp', 'bitch' and 'whore'. If we're discussing freedom, one might consider lifelong anonymity and online abuse the real prison here. So why is her freedom less of a consideration than his? When will the narrative change?
There are some days when 'hashtag feminism' seems insubstantial to me and I question its value. Like so many of us, sometimes I forget about the collective power of words when it's preceded by a hashtag. Not today. There is a reason why #HerNameWasReevaSteenkamp is trending today and it has nothing to do with commercial gain and everything to do with remembering there is a 'she' who lost her voice on Valentines Day and her name was Reeva Steenkamp. Her life, her death, her name. Let's not forget her.

OSCAR PISTORIUS IS SENTENCED TO 5 YEARS IN PRISON AND LIKELY TO SERVE LESS

ON THIS THIS DAY WHEN OSCAR PISTORIUS HAS BEEN SENTENCED LET US NOT FORGET THE VICTIM REEVA STEENKAMP WHO HAD HER LIFE TRAGICALLY TAKEN AWAY

Remembering ‘humble and beautiful’ Reeva Steenkamp – by the photographer who knew her best

Courtesy of http://www.telegraph.co.uk/women/womens-life/11089413/Oscar-Pistorius-verdict-Remembering-humble-Reeva-Steenkamp-by-the-photographer-who-knew-her-best.html

The world must not forget Reeva Steenkamp says Nick Boulton, the photographer who worked with the late model for a decade, as he opens up to Emma Barnett about his reactions to the verdict so far

“Horrified,” is the first word out of the mouth of South African photographer, Nick Boulton, when he learns that I’ve called to talk about Reeva Steenkamp.

“I am just horrified by it all,” he says, reacting to Judge Masipa’s judgment - in the last few hours she has found Oscar Pistorius not guilty of premeditated murder. He’s been listening to the trial on his radio in South Africa, while working in his studio.

Nick Boulton first began photographing a young Steenkamp in 2003 for Avon. Countless shoots followed over the next decade for the likes of FHM – the magazine which named her twice as one of the world’s sexiest women. He believes that there isn’t another photographer who worked with her more.

In the midst of the hysteria surrounding the trial and laser-like focus on Pistorius, Steenkamp’s boyfriend of just three months, Boulton is worried that the world has forgotten the young woman at the heart of this.
“The emphasis has been on him the whole time – his sobbing in court; the way he has reacted to the proceedings. He’s even been seen publicly out in bars since the case began and I know he’s got drunk and gone after another model.
“It’s outrageous he’s been allowed to go out like this. People are very shocked already by the judge’s verdict [so far],” he explains, with a rawness in his voice.

In an eerie echo of OJ Simpson’s court case, dubbed by many as the celebrity trial of last century, the deceased woman at the heart of this story has also been largely overshadowed as the world rushes to focus on her boyfriend’s fate.
However, unlike Nicole Brown Simpson, OJ’s murdered wife, Steenkamp had a public profile and according to Boulton, it was only going to grow as her career was “just starting to take off”.
Weeks before her death Steenkamp, a 29 year-old model and law graduate, described herself as: "Brainy, blonde, bombshell.”
She had been about to appear in a South African celebrity TV reality show called Tropika Island of Treasure and the producers had asked her to sum herself up in three words.
This is a description which fits with Boulton’s recollection of her from their many shoots and trips together.
“Reeva was not like most models. She was not your typical model in any way. She was incredibly humble about her beauty,” he says.
“She was a successful and very smart girl – outside of her modelling. She wasn’t a prima donna. I work with lots of models and Reeva was different. It would get to the point sometimes where I would almost question why she was doing it.
“She was definitely going to go on and do much bigger things – and not just modelling. Her career was in its infancy.”
Indeed, Steenkamp’s old university friend Kerry Smith believes the model was going to use her law degree in years to come. "She always said modelling would not last - you need to have something to come back to," she told the BBC.
"She was more than just a pretty face, she had a beautiful heart and ambition," the 35-year-old legal assistant said.

Throughout the trial the ANC Women’s League has supported Steenkamp’s family. The group’s members have also been protesting in support her outside the high court today, in an attempt to make sure the 29-year-old young woman at the heart of this terrible situation will not be overlooked.
But Boulton doesn’t think in the long-term Steenkamp will be forgotten. The last time he saw her was for a job two months before she started dating Pistorius.
Despite South Africa’s frighteningly high crime rate and issues with gun violence, Steenkamp was the first person Boulton knew well to have been fatally hurt.

“The world should remember Reeva Steenkamp as a down-to-earth person who was beautiful inside and out. Her career was just starting to take off – the whole thing is just hideous,” Boulton says.
“I am still so shocked.”
Regardless of what Judge Masipa’s final verdict is, the waiting world should take more than a moment to remember Reeva Steenkamp, a bright and talented woman, who died almost instantly after Mr Pistorius shot her through a toilet door at his house in Pretoria.

A TIME TO KILL JOHN GRISHAM'S BOOKS

Tomorrow I will dump and burn John Grisham's books because Wed 22 October is the 1 week anniversary since John Grisham's interview defending perverts watching child porn.

A TIME TO KILL JOHN GRISHAM’S BOOKS 22 OCTOBER 2014

 

Join me on the 22^nd October in dumping and burning John Grisham books in protest over his horrible comments. If you were as horrified as me that he defended people who create a market for children to be kidnapped, exploited, abused, raped, tortured and killed for child porn please get rid of your John Grisham books and never buy another one.

 

Wednesday the 22^nd of October is the one week anniversary since John Grisham made comments in defence of perverts who watch child porn. This will be the day that I chose to dump and burn John Grisham’s books in protest.  It is a Time To Kill John Grisham books to paraphrase one of his most famous novels. It is ironic that one of his most famous novels is about 2 white men who rape a 10 year old African American girl. It is even more ironic that John Grisham got inspiration for this novel based on a harrowing account of a 12 year old rape victim whose testimony he had heard in court.

 

Plot of a Time To Kill

In the small town of Clanton, in Ford County, Mississippi, a ten-year-old African-American girl named Tonya Hailey is viciously raped and beaten by two white racists, James Louis "Pete" Willard and Billy Ray Cobb. Tonya is later found and rushed to a hospital while Pete and Billy Ray are heard bragging in a roadside bar about their crime. Tonya's distraught and outraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, consults his friend Jake Brigance, a white attorney who'd represented his family before, on whether he could get Carl Lee acquitted if he killed the two men. Jake tells Carl Lee not to do anything stupid, but admits that if it had been his daughter, he would kill the rapists. Carl Lee is determined to avenge Tonya and, while Pete and Billy Ray are being lead into holding from their bond hearing, he kills both men with an M-16.

 

Inspiration for a Time to Kill

In 1984 at the De Soto County courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim. According to Grisham's official website, Grisham used his spare time to begin his first novel, which "explored what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants." He spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987.

 

John Grisham’s apology

A Statement from John Grisham:
Anyone who harms a child for profit or pleasure, or who in any way participates in child pornography—online or otherwise—should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.
My comments made two days ago during an interview with the British newspaper "The Telegraph" were in no way intended to show sympathy for those convicted of sex crimes, especially the sexual molestation of children. I can think of nothing more despicable.
I regret having made these comments, and apologize to all.

 

As a survivor of multiple abuse by a pedophile ring and other predators I completely reject your flimsy apology for the following reasons;

1.       You have not  specifically stated that your friend who was jailed for watching child porn is in fact a pedophile and the rest of the perverts who go online to access are pedophiles. So I assume you still think they are just perverts who click on a pc?

2.       You have not apologised in anyway to show you specifically apologise to victims of child porn who are abused, raped, tortured, drugged and possibly killed to make pornographic materials to be viewed by the people you sympathize with!

3.       I don’t believe for one second you are sorry about the comments you made. I strongly believe you regret the backlash and the fact it will hurt your book sales and eventually your pocket. I am sure someone in your PR team wrote this statement for you.

4.       If you had only done a written interview you could have manipulated us but because you made a view, I read your body language. You came across as a staunch sympathiser of people who view child porn and believe they cause no harm, and you were smiling, smirking and laughing as you said these words.

5.       I recommend instead of a flimsy apology you donate a large sum of money to a national child abuse charity.

6.       I also recommend you meet with survivors of child abuse directly related to children used commercially in child porn and ask them what they think about the thought of perverts watching pornographic materials with them being abused?

 

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/northamerica/usa/11165656/John-Grisham-men-who-watch-child-porn-are-not-all-paedophiles.html

To quote the Grisham's own book A time to kill, which is about 2 white rapist pedophiles who rape an 10 year old girl. I feel it is deeply disturbing that a man that wrote such a provocative novel about justice for a child that was raped would make so light of perverts who watch child porn and create a market for commecialisation of sexual abuse of children!

Please join me in dumping and burning John Grisham books on Wed 22 October.

A TIME TO KILL

Plot summary

In the small town of Clanton, in Ford County, Mississippi, a ten-year-old African-American girl named Tonya Hailey is viciously raped and beaten by two white racists, James Louis "Pete" Willard and Billy Ray Cobb. Tonya is later found and rushed to a hospital while Pete and Billy Ray are heard bragging in a roadside bar about their crime. Tonya's distraught and outraged father, Carl Lee Hailey, consults his friend Jake Brigance, a white attorney who'd represented his family before, on whether he could get Carl Lee acquitted if he killed the two men. Jake tells Carl Lee not to do anything stupid, but admits that if it had been his daughter, he would kill the rapists. Carl Lee is determined to avenge Tonya and, while Pete and Billy Ray are being lead into holding from their bond hearing, he kills both men with an M-16.
Carl Lee is charged with capital murder.

Inspiration

In 1984 at the De Soto County courthouse in Hernando, Grisham witnessed the harrowing testimony of a 12-year-old rape victim.^[1] According to Grisham's official website, Grisham used his spare time to begin his first novel, which "explored what would have happened if the girl's father had murdered her assailants." ^[1] He spent three years on A Time to Kill and finished it in 1987. Grisham has also cited Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird as an influence. This book is set in 1984.^[2] Another stated inspiration was the success of Presumed Innocent.^[3]

AN OPEN LETTER TO JAMIE OLIVER FROM A CHILD ABUSE SURVIVOR

AN OPEN LETTER TO JAMIE OLIVER FROM A CHILD ABUSE SURVIVOR

 

David Mason was given four years in a young offenders’ institute after raping 12-year-old girl before joining the apprenticeship programme at Celebrity Chef’s Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant.

Dear Jamie Oliver,

I write this letter as I read online in horror that your representatives have confirmed that a convicted pedophile, David Mason has received a cushy apprentice job at your restaurant. I believe in so publicly giving a pedophile such an amazing opportunity is a smack in the face for victims of child abuse. It absolutely sends the WRONG MESSAGE to potential and active pedophiles. The message being that “if you commit a horrific crime of raping or molesting a child there is a chance society will forgive you and give you a wonderful new life and you could even work for a celebrity”. The fact that he went to prison doesn’t mean that it was an effective deterrence. David Mason could still pose a huge risk to children. The litmus test should always be “If (god forbid) the pedophile had raped a child you know, would you have made the same decision?”. Anyone who says ‘Yes’ is a liar, there only seems to be a desensitization and normalization of child abuse when the victim is a stranger. Had the victim been your child (god forbid) you or your management would not have let David Mason anywhere near your restaurant.

 

In fact it shocks me more that your restaurant has hired a pedophile in light of the information we have now on how rampant pedophilia is in light of operation Yewtree, the high profile child abuctions, rapes and murders and the recent pedophile hunter documentary on ITV. These cases show there are predators in society who, if and when the opportunity comes they would not think twice of molesting, raping and murdering a child. In fact to get further kicks they will take photos and videos of the ordeal.

 

I cried today when I saw the news article trending because I know like many survivors of child sexual abuse, I will never ever get a second chance in life. I am serving a LIFE SENTENCE. I have had one life and it was ruined by pedophiles both young and old. No matter what I achieve in my career, personal life or hobbies the pain will always be there and the physical and mental scars will always be a reminder of my horrific ordeals. In my case it was multiple abusers both strangers and people I knew and trusted.  Yet a pedophile gets an amazing opportunity to start a new life? As I looked at the photos of David Mason smiling and enjoying his apprenticeship programme I feel a revulsion. All I imagine is that same face was probably smiling and getting twisted pleasure from attacking and raping a 12 year old girl. I can’t see past that because I believe once a pedophile always a pedophile and they cannot be rehabilitated. I will proceed to tell you why I believe why pedophiles can never be rehabilitated from my own experience as I do not wish to discuss cases in the media and further distress victims or the families of victims who have sadly passed. Also it would be negligent for me to make assumptions about how those victims suffered their ordeals.

 

If you read my bio you can see the multiple instances of when I was raped as a child and I can tell you the pedophiles involved ranged from early teenage hood (with kids been incited to molest  when it was groups), young adults, mature adults and old people. It never made a difference to me whether my abuser was 13, 19, 40 or 60, I felt the same anger and revulsion! They all knew it was wrong but took some twisted pleasure from abusing me.  There was never one reason for their attacks on me but there were characteristics that they had in common no matter their age, background, history or family situation;

·         They have a strong sexual attraction to children and it is something they will find a way of satisfying and the vulnerability of a child makes them believe they will not be found out or the child will never speak of it.

·         A manic desire to have power and control over someone else

·         They take natural pleasure in the vulnerability of a child and they will easily threaten to kill you, kill someone you love, lock you away or rape you further because no one will believe a ‘dirty little slut like you”. They know a child will easily believe these threats and be scared.

·         Hate (whether self hate or hate towards a certain gender or other human beings)

·         A twisted desire to cause fear, humiliation and pain to make themselves feel important or big

·         Opportunistic predators

·         Morbid curiosity because of wanting to experience sexual perversions and a child is an easy target

·         Twisted urges that need satisfying after watching porn (whether adult porn or child porn)

·         Entitlement that makes them think sex is “a right” and they should not be refused or rejected. In fact the word ‘no’ in my experience angers a pedophile more

·         They are turned on by the secrecy and taboo of child sex abuse and each time they abuse you they will cross more boundaries, some will even want to abuse multiple children at once, torture a child and possibly murder a child.

·         They are convinced they are doing nothing wrong and they will even try to convince you that you are a slut who is asking for it or is bad and making him (or her) abuse you. If you were not so bad he would not abuse you.

·         They find a child seductive or provocative and will blame your swimming costume, breasts that have developed early and try and walk in on your naked in the bath or bedroom.

·         Lastly they know the crime is so horrific, taboo and secretive that the child will never be believed or be told to keep quiet about it. They are in fact very confident that the adults in your life will turn a blind eye or call you a liar. They will repeatedly tell you this until you become so paranoid and afraid of telling anyone.

 

While I have never had a problem with the issue of prisoner rehabilitation I have never supported this when it comes to sexual and violent crimes because I do not believe they are people who can change. I believe 100% that pedophiles can NEVER be rehabilitated because the abusers in my life were never remorseful and they were repeated abusers even if it was not always against children. Pedophiles are dangerous because they do not believe they are doing something wrong and given the chance they would campaign for the normalization of child sex abuse. The horrific crime of pedophilia should never be trivialized as ‘ a mistake ‘ or ‘bad judgement’ it is always a pre-mediated opportunistic crime. No amount of time in prison will stop a pedophile from having sexual perversions towards a child. Prison time is not punishment, it is a weak way for the justice system to keep a pedophile away from society for a while. Society and the justice system have not found a way to deal with pedophiles adequately because the justice and punishment is not ‘victim led’. The predator has always and will always have the desire to harm a child and they will either create the opportunity or wait until the opportunity comes up to abuse as child. Frankly Jamie Oliver your apprenticeship programme would have been better off rehabilitating a shoplifter or fraudster.

 

What is even more disgusting is that after my ordeals, I have had to watch for years in dismay as the pedophiles who were in positions of trust live happy, loving, fulfilling, amazing lives pretending to the world they were nice normal people. I have also had to live with the fear that they are abusing the children that I see in their presence. I have also seen just like in the case of David Mason known pedophiles being welcomed back into their families and communities and being given forgiveness with the excuse that every human being deserves a second chance. I do not believe pedophiles deserve a second chance because their victims will never get a second chance, you cannot undo the rape and molestation. There have been instances as well were I have been told off for not forgiving someone who had sexually harassed me for sex, or raped and molested someone else. They act as if a victim is uncivilized and a bad person for not having forgiveness in their heart to forgive a child rapist or molester. This is why I am re-traumatized and horrified whenever I see any forgiveness and sympathy for a pedophile because I know they have no remorse, repentance for what they have done.

 

You could never understand the terrible message you are sending to predators and kick in the teeth your decision has given to victims.

I can only see that you have rewarded a man who raped a 12 year old girl by giving him a lucrative life line. While his now teenage victim will see the news article and be re-traumatized. You cannot deal with pedophilia and other sexual and violent crimes with the same attitude as petty crimes like shoplifting or smoking cannabis. Trying to make people believe if you engage pedophiles positively, occupy them meaningfully and keeping them from direct contact with children will ‘cure’ them of pedophilia is nonsense. It is a dangerous path and will put children in danger. Pedophiles will never stop desiring children. If you have never been raped as a child you will never be an authentic expert on pedophilia whether you work as a professional i.e therapist, authority figure i.e police or social services, or as a person who runs rehabilitation programmes. You just have no clue how the mind of a pedophile works in that moment of attack and what the victim endures.

 

Whenever I have attended any survivor support group, workshop or event  survivors have always voiced this experience, that “if you have never been abused as a child” you will never ever understand what it feels like to have experienced that horrific traumatic ordeal. Personally I have always lived with the need to forgive, forget and move on but sadly it doesn’t work that way. In fact the more I tried to forget and push away the trauma the more it affected me. Do you think I wanted to live with such horrific memories? In fact I hated feeling that way so much that I pushed away my memories so hard it triggered a long term dissociative disorder. The dissociative disorder made it difficult to connect with others and encouraged bullying because I was perceived as weird, cold and uncaring. There are a lot of insensitive and uninformed comments from “non victims” and over the years I have heard the following;

·         It was a long time ago surely you need to move on.

·         You need to forgive,  not to excuse the pedophile but in order to heal yourself

·         Your negativity will not help you heal

·         God will heal you

·         You were so young did you ever understand what happened to you?

·         I know someone who was abused and s/he is fine why can’t you be move on?

·         You can get over this you are not that child anymore

·         Your current fear is unfounded it will never happen to you again, why are you still so scared?

·         The person who abused you is out of your life you can heal if you try harder

·         You are letting this person continue to ruin your life because s/he is still in your head

·         Oprah Winfrey was raped as a child and she is fine, and you can be fine too! You can be a role model too!

I know many will ask me what suggestions I have for punishing pedophiles and preventing further abuse?

·         I believe the justice system needs to give much longer sentences and listen to victim impact reports

·         The government needs to invest more in the penal system, if there is enough money to go to unnecessary wars

·         Then the government can built more maximum security prisons to keep pedophiles away from society longer.

·         I would also encourage investments in places like Coalinga State Hospital (CSH) in the USA, which was featured in Louis Theroux’s 2009 BBC documentary, “A Place for Paedophiles”.  Coalinga State Hospital (CSH) opened on September 5, 2005 and was California’s newest state hospital, the first to be constructed in the state in more than 50 years. It is a maximum security civil-commitment facility built to ensure that sexually violent predators stay out of the community. Currently, the hospital houses 850 sexually violent predators

·         In the time they are in prison they should take part in compulsory sessions that enable them to face the reality of the evil they have done and the impact on their victims. They should be continually assessed with regard to their attraction and sexual desires for children.

·         Chemical castration should be available for those who admit their desires will never go away (I prefer it to be compulsory but human rights legislation would not allow it)

·         I do agree that in prison they should re-train pedophiles but for a vocation that is self employed. I think it is unfair to force law abiding workers to work alongside a convicted pedophile some of whom could have been abused in childhood. They should only be allowed to work self employed where they disclose their past and it is up to the employer/client to employ them and the community to feel safe with a paedophile working nearby.

·         Also just like there programmes for certain groups in society to work together, there could for example be factory or site jobs where the only staff are pedophiles. They will only be handling goods and have very limited contact with the public.

·         Once a paedophile is out of prison the community where he lives should know of his past and be the ones allowed to decide on whether the paedophile can live and work in the area.

·         School and community programmes should be devised speaking openly about paedophiles and providing child and parent packs on how to watch out for predators and communicating with their children.

 

READ BELOW THE STATEMENT FROM JAMIE OLIVER’S FIFTEEN RESTAURANT

“Since 2002, Fifteen has been taking young people into its Apprentice Programme, many of whom need a second chance to turn their life around.

“David was completely honest about his past when he applied for the course and we decided that as he had served his sentence he should be allowed a place on the programme.  He has so far been an excellent student."

Mason spent two years behind bars and two years on probation, during which time he did a Prince’s Trust Team Programme.

Following his horrific crime, Mason was put on the sex offenders register indefinitely and has been banned from being near young girls without permission.

 

Mason was given the sentence in 2010 after forcing himself upon his young victim after playing video games together.

It has been reported that during the sentencing, the judge presiding over the case said: “The law exists to protect young and vulnerable children and she was both of those things, as you well knew. You knew very well that having sex with such a young girl was wrong.”

Source http://www.mirror.co.uk/3am/celebrity-news/jamie-olivers-restaurant-hires-convicted-4449275#ixzz3GMBfAuAe