Ex-Middlesbrough councillor guilty of child sex offences

[WarriorN]

www.gazettelive.co.uk/news/teesside-news/ex-conservative-councillor-david-smith-23678572

This is the man who wanted to make all public toilets gender neutral.

Bringing the two threads together

Councillor wants Mayor to make all toilets gender neutral www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3614999-Councillor-wants-Mayor-to-make-all-toilets-gender-neutral

Two unrelated newspaper reports www.mumsnet.com/Talk/womens_rights/3638747-Two-unrelated-newspaper-reports

As the op said, useful for referring to with hindsight.

@bagetteaboutit

(Frequent poster under usual name, changing to this in reflection of the first post on the individual)

Good, I hope his sentence reflects the severity.

This is the man who wanted to make all public toilets gender neutral.

Answers the who benefits question perfectly doesn't it.

Isn't it amazing how often this happens... the list gets longer and longer.

It is a long list Artichokeleaves . I fear that were we to do a deep dive into a significant number of the men desperate to remove women's rights to privacy while undressed and vulnerable, we'd at leats treble that list in an instant.

I'm waiting on Crispin Blunt's intervention of "it's a miscarriage of justice!"

I'm deeply troubled.

I keep trying to tell myself that I don't know the denominator for the number of councillors who are charged/convicted of offences such as this.

I'm still dispirited. I wonder about the cases that aren't being brought and I wonder if I'm being unfair.

And then I wonder whom it serves. It's Arendt's banality of evil.

I have been waiting for about two years to say this out loud: What a fucking creep.

Here's his speech on making Middlesborough 'gender neutral'

'Traditionally toilets have been gender specific, divided into two categories: male and female.

But Cllr Dave Smith, Conservative member for Coulby Newham, is calling for Middlesbrough to become a gender neutral town and is asking the mayor to make a start by designating all council building toilets as gender-neutral.

In a statement, Cllr Smith said he would be meeting with Mr Preston to ask him to consider the change.

He said: "On Tuesday June 18, I am meeting Middlesbrough Mayor Andy Preston and one of the issues I will be bringing up is one that I included in my local election campaign - gender neutral toilets.

"I am also intending to contact the relevant executive member and to get a local conversation across the area on this topic.

"Through my time interacting with local transgender and non-binary people, I've seen first hand the difficulties faced by these individuals when accessing public toilets and changing rooms.

"The feeling of humiliation is an experience that most of us don't go through when visiting a public toilet and, in 2019, that is simply unacceptable."'

Here's his speech on making Middlesborough 'gender neutral'
…
"The feeling of humiliation is an experience that most of us don't go through when visiting a public toilet and, in 2019, that is simply unacceptable."'

😱 Smith and I have very different ideas about what constitutes unacceptable.

I also find the word 'accessing' a bit odd. Don't you just 'use' a loo or a changing room? 'accessing' it has a completely different feel. It's like focussing on the space itself rather than the function the space is actually intended for.

Well, unsurprising, I suppose, given this creep's general outlook.

I believe there have been several individuals in public positions with similar histories? At least one other in the UK and I know of one in the US.