Brendan Cox

Given the position of influence he is in, as a result of the sad loss of his wife, I find it very telling that he set out to deceive everyone from the start over the writing of the book he claims to have written in his wife's name. He didn't write it. A ghost writer did. He was happy to lie about that, and very explicitly did. What else has he lied about?

Also I wonder if very dedicated women working for charities doing important work may feel an additional emotional burden around pursuing it. This can apply in lots of other settings too but they may fear that if they report the colleagues they worked with, the people in need helped via their charity or their overall type of cause may suffer loss of donations or even the charity sector suffer as a whole. A bit like the pressures of reporting abuse within a political party perhaps.

These areas can attract very principled people who want to help and change the world, then when they are abused in that setting they may feel pressure not to pursue it because they know there are already people out there gunning against ‘their cause’ for eg uk-funded international aid agencies (or political opponents to their party) who they know will seek to capitalise on the personal pain of the women who have reported abuse in their workplace (or use of a service/charitable aim) and then their abuse will become used for political point scoring.

(I hope this is just my emotional projection and is not a barrier to reporting if all other things are equal in the balance, because the horse has truly objectively already bolted on this one. #metoo is a recognised truth in every sector and arena of life, because it articulates the age old truth that male violence and sexual entitlement are a reality for both female service providers and female service users in every sector of their life, and always have been.
.. but I am just thinking that there the very reasons and ideals that draw some women to work in these areas in the first place, may also work to mitigate against feeling able to do something to report personal harm they have experienced. (Which is in no way saying it’s all an easy thing for women to report abuse in workplaces where they don’t have the same emotional investment in a ‘cause’.) because the power dynamics working against them are depressingly similar across all sectors and workplaces.

to all affected.

There are ways that you can report it anonymously and leave it on file for the police as intelligence. Contact your sexual assault referral centre. They take a witness statement but the police can only contact you via the centre. It's up to you what you do later but at least it's on file.

Agreed.

You can see the point of not coming forward. Looking at how much unthinking support there is for Brendan Cox, then anyone blowing the whistle could face significant vilification. It's the kind of thing that could easily end a career.

I think the other problem is that the victims are not coming forward (to the press) themselves. These are old stories where they actively avoided publicity to protect their work place. This will only have legs if there is more information provided, otherwise it'll just die a death and many people will remain unaware.

The allegations must be taken seriously, no matter how much of an inconvenient truth they may turn out to be.

Jonathan Aitken was another one - high risk strategy.

Thanks for the reminder about Jeffrey Archer and Tommy Sheridan, Babayaggatheboneylegged. Their legal adventures were mixed enough for both of them to end in prison.

A high risk strategy best left to monstrous narcissistic egos.

Course he wont sue.

He'll pretend it's out of respect for his late wife but it's really because the slimeball will lose.

No, she is not to blame.

I agree, I did not warm to what I saw of him.

if a shyster lawyer could convince him there was a case, then why not?

nauticant I can't help but think of Jeffrey Archer and Tommy Sheridan, who successfully sued in similar circs

Hurtingheart never underestimate the power of denial

I wonder if he will sue the MoS?

The would be a spectacularly risky and arrogant thing for him to do. I could imagine all kinds of stuff would come out into the open if it became known that legal action was starting.

Jo Cox MUST have known what he was up to then, no? If he lost his job over it?

oldenglishsheepdog the fact that he resigned from STC in 2015 after accusations of inappropriate behaviour towards female colleagues was fairly widely reported at the time.

This new story about him assaulting a woman at Harvard in Oct 2015 has been stood up and reported by the MoS, but it's not a 'new' story as such. It just helps build a picture of BC and his behaviour towards women.

But, it's dodgy/risky for other publications to follow up on without doing any investigating of their own. If these allegations don't stand up, BC would be able to successfully sue for defamation.

Also, do you think the press really want to stick the knife in to a widower/dad of two bereaved young kids? What would they really stand to gain from it?

More might come out of course, particularly in light of what's going on at Oxfam and if this is indeed the tip of the iceberg re BC

I wonder if he will sue the MoS?

I think it's just too complicated and unpredictable for media outlets. With anyone else the media would be all over it but Brendan Cox seems to have some kind of saint-by-proxy invulnerability.

Having seen the Mail stick its neck out over this, and then everyone else becoming suddenly distracted in other directions, including reporting in-depth about the scandal of sexual abuse being tolerated in the charitable sector, it's clearly too risky to cover this without further corroboration.

I'm finding the media non-response to this to be fascinating.

I have seen this reported in the Mail, someone told me it was mentioned on R4 but otherwise, nothing. I don't understand why other pro-Brexit media outlets aren't all over this - surely it's an easy win for them?

Doesn't surprise me, southlondon. They said at Save The Children, 'women' reported him. That means at least two. And, with the complaint to police, that makes at least three women. I imagine the majority of men who grope and harass never get officially reported. If three women complain, you're either innocent and the unluckiest man ever, or you're a fucking prolific sex pest.

The saddest thing is, this simply does not surprise me.

Arrogant men like him always think they can behave as they choose whilst bleating about what great, kind GOOD people they are.

I worked with BC for 7 years at Save the Children, this is not only true but the tip of the ice berg. I left STC as I was sickened of the level of cover up by the board and Justin Forsyth (who went on to work for the UN at Unicef). I personally know the women who went to the board and had him FINALLY removed as they threatened to go to the police but didn't want to hurt the charity. He is the worst kind of man.