How can I stop thinking about a distressing news article? *trigger warning*

[Dontwinfriendswithsalad]

I’ve just read a news article about an absolutely horrific case of child abuse by a teacher called Jamie Varley. If you haven’t read anything about it please don’t, as I desperately wish I hadn’t.

Does anyone have any advice on how I can scrub this from my brain or stop thinking about it? I know the world is a cruel place but this is probably one of the worst things I’ve read and I need it out of my head.

I'm the same OP. I have been in tears about it and can't stop thinking about it x

I feel for the foster parents Preston was with before them who probably bonded with him.

Imagine the school kids who had him as a teacher finding out he was a baby torturer.

Poor baby.

I cried when I first read this story and am also finding it hard to clear it from my mind. That poor, poor, innocent child.
I agree in cases like this that the death penalty is appropriate, what otherwise would be the point in detaining these vile creatures at his majesty's pleasure? Obviously, keeping them away from other children but I resent a single £ being spent on accommodating them and others in the same sub-human category.

I read that article just now and felt sick. Had to skim read it. Absolutely disgusting that one of the men is a secondary school teacher.

I can’t sleep - this is probably the nastiest case since Ian Watkins.

I read it. It is so utterly horrifying what they put that baby through.

In a way, you are grieving for that child, you understand the horror and the suffering. You acknowledge him.

I cried today when I read it.

I felt profound sorrow.

I’ll never forget reading that article…..
I wish I hadn’t
words can’t describe how I feel

Also still not asleep as it’s the last article I read and I am deeply disturbed and sickened to my core.
May the jury be given strength to cope and the legal team too
Sleep peacefully beautiful baby boy , safely in heaven 🌈 🦋 🧸 away from the worst evil

Yes, unfortunately I’ve seen that news. It’s absolutely sickening.

Bless you, every time you think about it, focus on the alphabet and try to name a place you’ve been to for every letter. Keep going back to the task, every time your mind wanders.

Absolutely abhorrent. Vile monsters. That poor little baby, it's just sickening.

Yes. It’s haunting. Just horrific. Unbelievable.

Sometimes when I can’t escape these stories in my head I think to myself that we owe the victims to know about what they suffered. It doesn’t really help actually.

I want those men to suffer horribly for what they did.

This is what I do now when I read sonething similar. 1. I make a donation to the NSPCC. 2. I make a complicated recipe or mend something that needs fixing. If it's the middle of the night I make a list of house and garden things that need fixing or fancy food I could make for the weekend. Doesn't stop the thoughts but it's constructive and calms the nervous system a bit.

I knew exactly what this would be about before I opened the thread OP. It’s one of the most horrific things I’ve read.

Offenders like that don’t tend to do well in prison.

Thinking of that tiny little boy and hoping he is now at peace - he deserved so much more.

I knew that was going to be the story. I read it too before going to sleep. That beautiful boys face is imprinted now. My Grandson is a similar age. Unthinkable.

When a report is too awful for the papers to do more than just hint at, you know it’s beyond shocking.
I reading this one thinking “it can’t be..” and then realised that it actually was every bit as bad as I feared. When it came on the TV news, I switched it off.
Poor boy - he needed saviours and got that.

There have been too many awful cases like this recently. It breaks my heart. I’ve tried honouring these beautiful babies in my mind when I’m caring for my kids and it makes me put these poor children before their horrifying abusers. When I cuddle and read a book with my eldest I think that it’s a book I’m reading for Sara Sharif too, because she deserves that. When I run around outside and giggle with him I think about Ethan. I find it very hard with this case though. I’ve held my little one closer when feeding overnight. It’s the only way I’ve found of quelling the desperate anger others have described here at the abusers.

Alot of pedophiles work with children. They are drawn to those types of roles where they are in close contact with kids.
I read the article yesterday and it is so disturbing I've promised myself ill never read another one again. Rip beautiful little boy, may you be held in Christ's loving arms for eternity.

This has made me teary. Thank you. That's a lovely thing to do.

@maudelovesharold
The problem there is that if they've never been caught offending, nothing will flag up. And those kinds of monsters are usually very very careful. Until they get what they want and by that time, their crime has been committed. And if they don't get caught doing something as horrific as these two vile scum have done, they carry on.

I have to admit, it takes me a good two weeks to stop being hypervigilant when I see a man out with a child alone, after I've heard about these kinds of crimes.
RIP little one, you were failed massively, but you're safe now and whatever way it comes, justice will be done. 💔

While it is extremely rare that a baby is abused like this, this is at least the third time this has happened in the UK when two gay men have been allowed to adopt or foster a baby (in the last 20 years).

This doesn't seem to proportional to similar abuse when the parents are a man and a woman.

I'm not saying they shouldn't be allowed to adopt, but could councils do better vetting?

In all three cases there were obvious signs of abuse and it's flabbergasting that the authorities didn't act.

Not sure the NSPCC are much help, sadly.

I wish we could get a proper children's charity that really is bothered about abusing children

I think it's really unfair to bring his mother into this when you have no idea why he was put up for adoption.

It does say that there was severe signs of abuse when the child was admitted to hospital, (3 times) including facial bruising, but they were able to explain it away to hospital staff?
You have to wonder if the staff were worried about being labelled bigots or something.

Same OP. I just think there is no punishment on earth that could be bad enough for these revolting, evil pieces of filth. I hope they rot in hell for all eternity and suffer every second between now and death.

I remeber reading the book of one of the West Children when I was young. It sat with me for months.