UK Courts protect abused children from 'they led me on' defense

by besty 8 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

• 

  besty

  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/10228621/Lawyer-who-called-13-year-old-predatory-is-barred-from-sex-offence-cases.html

  From memory (help pls) when Jehovahs Witness elders report child abuse Judicial Comittee outcomes to the Watchtower they have remit to comment on whether the child victim played some part in the offence.

  This despicable question seeks to make the victim a mitigating factor in the sin crime.

  Well as of today the UK judicial system has laid down a marker that this 'defence' is inappropriate and will not fly.

  What the defence said:

  During the trial, Judge Peters had been told by Mr Colover: “The girl is predatory in all her actions and she is sexually experienced. “She appeared to look around 14 or 15 and had the mental age of a 14 or 15-year-old despite being younger than that. “There was sexual activity but it was not of Mr Wilson's doing. You might say it was forced upon him despite being older and stronger than her.”

  What the Judge said:

  Judge Nigel Peters QC said he had taken into account the fact she looked older than she was and told Wilson: “On these facts (that were put before the court), the girl was predatory and was egging you on. That is no defence when dealing with children but I am prepared to impose a suspension.”

  The suspended sentence is under review.
• 

  DATA-DOG

  Good! I am always disgusted with that excuse. If you are an adult and you have a sexual relationship with a child, no matter how " experienced " they are, you have abused them. What have you done, except perpetuate the cycle of abuse?

  A 13 year old child was preying on HIM?!?!? That shows how twisted his mind is. How can any child be truly safe around that kind of person, or any organization that defends them, or minimizes their crime? It's disgusting.
• 

  AnnOMaly

  From memory (help pls) when Jehovahs Witness elders report child abuse Judicial Comittee outcomes to the Watchtower they have remit to comment on whether the child victim played some part in the offence.

  http://www.jwfacts.com/pdf/child-abuse-watchtower-telememo-1993.pdf

  Note Question 9, i.e. 'how many elders thought the "victim" was a Lolita?'

  
• 

  besty

  thanks AnnOMaly

  "How many elders felt that the victim was somewhat at fault or willingly participated in the acts?"

  Jehovahs Witness and Watchtower leaders want to know if child victims of sexual abuse contributed to their own abuse.

  Further they want to know how many elders felt that this was the case. Not content with assigning blame to the child victim of Jehovahs Witness sex abusers, the Watchtower leaders demand to know how many investigating elders (read untrained amateurs) also find the child at fault.

  Shameful.
• 

  Frazzled UBM

  Horrifying - it goes a long way to explaining why this has been such a big problem for such a long time in he oganisation - why would any victim come forward if they know they will themselves become the accused? The same attitude applies to rape victims generally - there was a thread about that last week.
• 

  cofty

  I heard on the news this evening that the prosecution lawyer is banned from handling sex abuse cases pending an investigation of his words.
• 

  TheOldHippie

  The only reason question 9 OUGHT to be there, is that it should be followed up by a CO or DO or Branch visit by a heavyweight telling those elders that they a) should resign immediately if sticking to the idea, or b) within a rather limited time limit do some heavy reading and studying followed by obtained understanding that the idea is 100 % false.

  Many a JW will no doubt have the idea that the victim to a certain extent brought it upon herself/himself, which is totally false, but that only reflect what people in general believ, regretfully. People having been in a jury can tell horrendous tales of what other members have said between themselves. Such ideas die hard. The WT is slow in coming, but I sincerely hope it is coming. Individual elders and COs/DOs are wonderful and do a great job in these matters, but the organizational structures are stiff and harder to handle - as is the case in many an organization. The present pope looks a bit more laidback, but he has a monstrous organization to fight with. Cardinal Ratzinger more or less gave up the fight, as I have understood it.
• 

  hotspur

  Not one mention of, or reference to, the parents on that form ..... every picture tells a story!

  (Unless the parents are the suspects of course)
• 

  Phizzy

  It's a similar, but worse, argument to the one which says, of an adult woman, "By the way she was dressed she was asking to be raped "

  There has been quite a lot of discussion of this cse in the U.K, and quite a lot of enlightenment has been given to the public in general because of it.

  That Paedophiles will blame their victims as a matter of course, and will excuse their behaviour in any way they can. There simply is no valid excuse or mitigating circumstances for these disgusting, heartless perverts.

  The sooner the WT stops meddling in things it knows even less about than the Courts, i.e child Abuse, and simply hands over each case to those who are qualified to deal with it, the better.

  Thw WT has ruined too many lives already, they need to get in to the 21st Century, and get some morals.