Why has this West Sussex family abuse case had so little coverage?

[JoyousOpalLemur]

This is from a few weeks ago but apart from it being covered on a local police website and a couple of local news sites, it's barely received any national coverage and nothing on BBC News, even BBC Sussex.

Five men and one women in West Sussex have been jailed for 100 years for 39 offences, including rape and child cruelty, against two girls.

The men were the girls' two adult brothers, their father, their uncle and their grandfather, and the woman was their mother.

In the police report it says the girls were both under the age of 13, but in the press reports it suggests that older sister was 12 when she reported the abuse to a teacher, and revealed it had been going on for six years.

When she told her mother of the abuse, her mother burnt her with cigarettes as punishment.

This, to me, is worse than the Josef Fritzl story, which was an international sensation.

https://www.sussex.police.uk/news/sussex/news/court-results/family-members-sentenced-for-abusing-two-girls-in-sussex/

The only reason anyone would want any more detailed information about a case like this is that they're revoltingly prurient

Your answer is in the second paragraph OP. The children need to remain anonymous for their own protection.

This has echos of the appalling Potts family case in Coventry a few years ago.

I thought it was because they are desperate to find out the race/nationality of the perpetrators.

It's quite clear what's happened. Rehashing the gory details for tabloid fodder isn't going to help the victims rebuild their lives. The monsters have been convicted. Not everything has to be paraded for public consumption.

I’m assuming that they don’t want to fan the flames as it’s a non- white family. Just awful, those poor girls. Thank goodness one girl was able to tell her school.

I hope those poor girls never have to see any of their family, the offenders or their wider family, ever again.

Beyond vile. 🙁

I had no idea. Yes, should have had some coverage. What a depraved family. Poor little girls, I could weep for them.

How utterly horrific. How messed up do you have to be as a family that sexual abuse is normalised by 3 generations?

I don't care that the rapists are non-white.

I didn't mention or even know this until I read the replies just now!

Is this really where we are now on Mumsnet?

Expressing outrage about a truly disturbing story and being confused as to why it's not bigger news means you get accused of racism?

It sounds like the police did a very good job if investigating the allegations and building a strong enough case to get a guilty verdict. It sounds like it should be easy, but actually it isn't when there is a risk that (for completely understandable reasons) the victims will try to take back their initial allegations. Especially when the victims are so young and their welfare needs to be protected. It also sounds (obviously don't have all the information) like the teachers at her school were proactive in reporting the signs of abuse to the right people once they knew. If the teacher hadn't followed up on the child saying she was too scared to go home then, horrifyingly, the abuse would still likely be happening and it wouldn't be in the media at all.

So, as someone else said, it isnt as big a story because there's no astoundinf institutional failure angle. In fact the angle is "institution (police and teacher safeguarding training) works exactly as we would want it to." Which is rightly what we should expect so is less newsworthy. And of course none of that takes away from how awful it was that it happened at all.

Poor little things. I hope they find peace in their lives and the scumbags who did this rot.

Also, I do hope the teacher gets some support. Must be harrowing to deal with - and I know teachers have training but they are teachers - not social workers or police... just primary school teachers.

Absolutely horrific. Can't believe what girls and women face from men in their own families.

However re news I think we already get too many news stories like this - i think there is an overemphasised on crime when so many other issues going on that are of greater public interest, e.g. what is happening to our communities, public services, climate, the world etc. I also think news doesn't have to be only negative horrible things like this that make us feel that humans are bad.

Is there a point you're trying to make though that im missing?

Totally agree - no primary school teacher could have prepared themselves for this.

OP, what’s brought it to mind for you now? Looking at the dates they were found guilty last October and sentenced back in February.

I imagine the lack of publicity is because no one can be named in order to protect the victims as much as possible.

If the teacher hadn't followed up on the child saying she was too scared to go home then, horrifyingly, the abuse would still likely be happening and it wouldn't be in the media at all.

Teachers (and anyone else with safeguarding responsibilities) MUST report any disclosures or concerns. I've done safeguarding training and that is the fundamental point that is hammered home. Report, report, report.

Someone messaged me the story, asking if I knew about it.

I'm from near the area and didn't. And have been curious to know why.

As for the BBC can't report on it to protect the identity of the victims - is that really true? The police have written a report about it. There have also been many famous stories over the years in which we don't actually know any of the names involved, Baby P, Girl A etc.

What more do you need to know though? I’m not sure poring over the details of these cases helps anyone and these children need the time and space to recover without people satisfying their own morbid curiosity about what happened to them.

Of course!
It would have been more newsworthy (and abominable) if she/he hadn't acted.

But in this case the professionalism of the teacher (aside from the fact she's/he's probably also a decent person) and the fact safeguarding training happened and that it hammered home reporting so much meant that the issue was reported and escalated. System works isn't in itself news (although it's tragic that we need to have safeguarding systems in the first place)

I missed this one. I did see the disgusting death of ANOTHER toddler, raped and killed by her father.

Maybe it’s been hidden from the news because the family are not white? These kind of things are usually down played so that it doesn’t ignite a race war.

In the vast majority of those cases the children are tragically dead, they can’t be hurt by speculation or people finding out their identity. These children survived horrific abuse, and will be able to find and read what’s written about them. It’s their actual lives, they deserve not to be fodder for tabloid news.

There are very strict reporting rules around protecting the anonymity of victims of sex based crimes. The more it is reported, the more likely that something will be revealed that will compromise their anonymity.

There are many, many cases involving abuse within families that are never reported, despite convictions.

NOT for the details of sexual offences against children.

It is quite enough to know that it happened and that those responsible are convicted and sentenced. What more can you possibly want to know without being a creep who wants the salacious details for their own entertainment? Such stuff should be "need to know" and since this has been dealt with by the court, which you were not part of, you DON'T need to know.