umbertoecho: A man who must have had experience in grooming. To be fair, my family did not know, but when I took him to court in the eighties, things were so different. It was not done to take such a dirty thing to court. To do so was to admit to being a rotten parent. I saw it differently. I wanted his name etched for all time in the records, as a paedophile.
There was no support for me or my children. No family member or close related friends wanted to be near such a disaster. I must say that the detectives and the magistrate were so fantastic though. They were the ones who stayed by us in this horrible experience. The magistrate slammed his hand down hard when the perps lawyer tried to cast doubt as to my mothering capacity. He really slammed hard on the desk and it was loud. He (the magistrate) gave no quarter to this slimy lawyer ( disbarred later on by the way).
You must be a very strong person, or perhaps your righteous outrage gave you strength that you did not know you had.
I remember those days when no-one wanted to discuss this problem, and any media mention would be a brief paragraph or two. And no-one (seemingly) knew the full extent of the problem. And, at times, it seems that those in authority were protecting offenders, so you were indeed fortunate to have fair-minded police and magistrate in the case you mention.
The problem of "protection' of offenders goes back centuries. Recent research from Cambridge University academics suggest, that during the reign of Elizabeth the first, kidnappers of young boys for sexual service in the entertainment industry may have had the protection of the Queen.
Readers on this topic may be interested in the writings of a man who likely has a deep understanding of the problem of child abuse in the Catholic church. His name is Richard Sipe and this is a link to part of his web-site:
http://www.awrsipe.com/Comments.html
The page I've linked to has some articles that discuss the problem, mainly in the context of that church. And, there are some interesting points that he makes. For example, in this article: http://www.awrsipe.com/Comments/2006-01-30-Spot_an_Abuser.html
Sipe estimates that there are likely some 100,000 Catholic victims of child abuse whose tormentors were priests and bishops. Statistically, the number of JW victims must be less, but the pattern is the same - the abuse is often by those with authority. If you explore his site, you may find his explanations of why there are so many child sex offenders in Christianity.
For his trouble Sipe has been the victim of attacks by his fellow church members, which I point out to demonstrate that your experience is not unique. In fact its common.
Here's one such attack: http://www.themediareport.com/2013/08/07/richard-sipe-ex-priest/
Your experience must be comforting to those in similar situations.
