Freddy Starr ???

[minibmw2010]

Why on earth, given the conversation subject, is Freddy Starr holding a child by the hand in all the interviews on the news tonight ???!! He's standing outside what I assume is his house holding hands with a small girl I assume to be his daughter.

[UltraBOF]

Same reason that shagging MPs appear with their doting wives. So they look like nice family blokes.

[hiddenhome]

To demonstrate that he's safe around children?

fucking farce

[NanaNina]

I only caught something quick about Freddy Starr in the news allegedly associated with JS - not even sure that was right cus just switched on. I always did think Freddy Starr was a peculiar bloke whatever he's done or not done.

Is anyon else tired of seeing JS's photos on screen all the time. We al know what he looks like so why bother, and I think it must be hurtful to the victims.

[SolidGoldYESBROKEMYSPACEBAR]

Is.anyone.else.tempted.to.make.a.list.of.all.the.other.creepy.arseholes.who.we.always.KNEW.were.creepy?

[PoppyScarer]

I agree NanaNina, even the DM online has lessened its coverage now...it's like the BBC News team is trying to do some retrospective ass-covering.

[PoppyScarer]

SolidGold you could...but the thread would vanish immediately.

[hiddenhome]

I remember Freddy Starr's Wife Swap episode and thought he was a vile piece of work then

[PanonHigh]

Pitchfork land here we come? Anyone who we think 'looks a bit odd' in the media is game for accusations? Whilst of course ignoring our own family members? But of course sexual abuse is in the domain of the BBC, not in our own front rooms.

[hiddenhome]

do you honestly think people here are that naive PanonHigh?

[PanonHigh]

Wel, of course SGB or any other poster could provide a list of 'dodgey looking blokes' at any time - that's obv. even without the repeated use of the full stop. But it serves to nicely avoid the prevalence of abuse in people's homes.

[hiddenhome]

Bollocks. We're all well aware of the abuse that goes on in people's homes.

It seems everyone's at it these days Nothing would surprise me any more.

[HoneyDragon]

I never trusted Scrappy Doo, so I'll add him to the list.

(I thought SGB was being justifiably snarky )

[PanonHigh]

hidden - I know that we are'nt aware of all of the abuse that goes on in our homes. At all. It's massive.

My concern is that JS and now possibly FS are seen as 'oddities' and being externalised.

[hiddenhome]

They are 'oddities' though and most of us know 'dodgy oddities' in our own lives too. I think it brings it home to people just how much child abuse is out there, whether it's in our own homes, or amongst the rich and famous

It seems that everyone's a bloody grubby pervert and it's shaking my faith in human nature tbh - esp. the stuff that's coming out about the high profile people and politicians.

I look at people in the street now and ask myself "are you one"?

[NanaNina]

I take your point PanonHigh and felt a bit uncomfortable in saying that I thought Freddy Starr was a peculiar bloke but did add whatever he has done or not done. Most people I think are aware that the vast majority of child abuse/abduction/murder crimes are perpetrated by people who are known to them. We do need to be careful. I recall the angry mob protesting outside the home of a paediatrician, thinking he was a paedophile!

I was a social worker in child protection in the 70s and 80s and it was not until the mid 80's that child "sexual abuse" crawled out of the woodwork (so to speak) and like all social problems, eg domestive violence, once the lid was lifted, it began to overwhelm us. We discovered that it was inter generational, and had been kept quiet for so long. I still don't know exactly how long it has been going on but I think we are probably thinking in terms of centuries. It was almost always the father, step father, older brother who was the perpetrator, and then of course there was the added complication of the child victim growing into the adult perpetrator.

A large boarding school for what we used to call "maladjusted children" was closed down in the Shire county in which I worked and the perpetrators were the head, the deputy, the designated police officer............then of course there was child on child sexual abuse. Horrendous.

Sorry this is a far cry from Freddy Starr. It just brought back memories. I spent 30 years in Children's services for a LA and I saw the very worst of human behaviour but always was "the sins of the fathers' visited on the sons" (don't know who said that) but what I am trying to say is almost always perpetrators were once victims. They were of course predatory and cut across all social classes, and the outlook for change is poor.

[PanonHigh]

I don't know what the answer here is. I DO know that there is a massive and widespread understanding amongst most men, as I believe, that women and children have a right to live unmolsted. Numerically though, there are hundreds of thousands of men who don't see life that way.

[HoneyDragon]

And yet my paediatrician was jailed for being a paedophile.

Who is now all over the fucking news again and was tied in with Jimmy Saville.

[PanonHigh]

Nana - I'd be really careful about accepting the 'sins of the fathers' argument given by sex offenders. It's very common. AND, it flies in the face of the voice of people who have been abused, who's stated resolution is to say ' I just don't want anyone else to go through what I did.' NOT, 'well I abused because I was abused'. It's a technique that sexual abusers offer with absolutely no evidence to back it up.

[twooter]

Wel, of course SGB or any other poster could provide a list of 'dodgey looking blokes' at any time - that's obv. even without the repeated use of the full stop

I take it the full stops are because her space bar doesn't work, rather than for extra emphasis.

[PanonHigh]

I take it as a device for extra emphasis.

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

I think the "sins of the father" thing can happen. Certainly, in one family I worked with, the mother saw no reason not to involve her dc (at the time, a dd aged 5 and a ds aged 3) in an active role in her own sex life, because she herself had been used sexually by her own male relatives (father, uncles, older brothers) from a similar early age.

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

And maybe female relatives too, don't know about that.

[PanonHigh]

Old I am not saying it has no value or incidence. But, I'd say that after decades of interviewing both victims and perpetrators of sexual abuse where the victims have been children and adult females, my and colleagues conclusions are that perpetrators' mitigation re their own abuse appear inauthentic, as they show very little victim empathy. Usually.

[SolidGoldYESBROKEMYSPACEBAR]

It.is.because.sodding.space.bar.broken.(thank.you.DS)...

[OldLadyKnowsNothing]

I bow to your far superior experience, Panon, and I honestly don't mean that in a snarky way. Of course the particular case I was involved in was unusual, probably why it has stuck in my head for so many years, so many generations were involved. It was normal in that family, and the mum didn't understand that what she was doing was wrong, so I suppose she didn't express much "victim empathy" either.

But yes, I agree, most victims don't live in that kind of totally fucked-up environment, and most wouldn't want to hurt others as they have been hurt.

I do wonder if there's a genetic element?