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/

If it's not reported on platforms like the BBC, how did you know that it happened?

Were you even aware of this story before you saw this thread?

Do you think all stories involving child abuse shouldn't be covered as only creeps are interested in them?

I think that, sometimes, we find a strange sense of comfort in believing that people who do terrible things are fundamentally different from us - that they don't share our culture, morals, beliefs, or even our ethnicity. That's why people often want to know whether a criminal belonged to a particular religion, cult, or 'other' group. We know we don't think the way they do - that's why we don't harm our children- so we look for an explanation of how or why they are different. It creates a degree of separation and reassures us that we are not like them.

Or in the case of people who support Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, something to use to further argue their hatred.

Why do you want to to have more publicity? It seems much better for the girls if it doesn't.

I did see it in the news, but yes I'm surprised it wasn't a bigger story. Maybe they were worried the victims would end up being identified if the perpetrators were found out somehow

There are many many child sexual abuse cases and I'm unaware of most of them. I am not unaware child abuse happens.

I think DETAILS should be kept out of the public domain ESPECIALLY when the victims are still living for privacy reasons.

In this case two children were sexually abused by family members. Those family members have been convicted and sentenced. What more can you possibly want to know? Why do you think your burning desire to know all the details trumps the victims right to privacy, now and future?

Those poor girls. What they went through for years is horrific.

I hope the fact they were believed and their family members sent to prison for a long time will bring them some comfort.

I struggle to understand how some people treat their children 😕

And if you scroll down on the original link, there's story after story of male violence.

I think sadly this stuff happens more than you'd think.

Outside of London not as much press interest - obviously we hear about these things because the press are showing up in court in the first place.

And also need to protect anonymity means it's harder for the press to make the story work without any pictures or names or anything.

I have a friend who works with people in Broadmoor who says many of the worst crimes by people in those places are not on the public radar as never make it to court in the first place

Why do you keep stating that I want to know 'more details', and therefore implying I must be a creep?

I've never stated I want more prurient details, I queried why the story didn't get more, or in the case if the BBC, ANY coverage.

This should be a massive story and, from what I can see, almost all the media apart from local sites and a handful of national ones reported on it.

Child abuse cases SHOULD be reported on, not least because this could help prevent future ones.

Screaming 'why are you interested? You must be a paedophile' is what trans activists used to say. It didn't work out well for them, and I don't think this approach, or calling people 'racist' when they didn't even know this was a non-white family (and how do they even know this?) is unlikely to shut everyone up either.

Thanks - that makes sense.

I'm not completely comfortable with the idea that this story should get more coverage, I think that harms the victims, but the reason it won't is that none of the detail can be published and there can be no photos, so beyond the court outcome (which has been widely published?) what else are you expecting to see? Papers aren't going to report the same details more than once.

I suspect respecting the victims is not the main driver for the lack of publicity. I imagine as the ethnicity of the individuals hasn’t been identified as non-white, the press aren’t as interested.

Agreed

Some on here are saying that the criminals are non-white, although I don't know how they know.

People are assuming because they are Muslim that they aren't white.

Just a thought but if the children did attend school perhaps the story should be made public so they could look at how it was missed and tighten up safeguarding.
I mean they always say ‘lessons will be learned’ but quite often minimal lessons are learned however if it’s only mentioned briefly locally then surely there’s zero lessons being learned re safeguarding.

I assume because it says in the reporting that the child was given money for Eid.

If there is a suggestion safeguarding failings were made, there must be better ways to address that than putting it all over the papers?

I don't know, the press seem to love a story where the perpetrators are none white lately.

There will be a review if needed that will be published. Safeguarding lessons aren’t learned through the press, because reporting isn’t analytical enough, so it’s not really a justification for publishing the misery these children endured.

Just a thought but if the children did attend school perhaps the story should be made public

Public how exactly? What additional information do you think could or should be made public which wouldn't compromise the right to privacy of the children involved?

I've just found the Sussex Police report on this. They say

“We urge the public not to speculate about the case online as this may jeopardise the victims’ legal right to anonymity.”

They might as well save their breath, mightn't they?

Family abuse happens all the time, do you want the details of all cases?

So well hidden we are discussing it on here, and you were able to find out all the information

The children in question survived. They will already likely suffer the after effects of the abuse for the rest of their lives. The last thing they need is to have their identities and all the details of what happened to them publicised. Reporting more detail on the identity of the parents will mean everyone will know who the victims were and they will know everyone knows.

Aside from names, newspapers have to be aware that individual piecement pieces of information combined can expose the identies of perpetrators and victims. Hence the information has to be as vague as possibe- general race is reported, a very general area. Even giving more detail on the area, the school , the professions of the perpetrators will expose their victims identity. And without the details, it's less of a news story. Plus unfortunately while families sexually abusing children is rare it's not that rare. Its one of the most common forms of child sexual abuse. And the details are always horrific. Because child sexual abuse is inherently horrific.

I can remember a while back there was an awful case of a woman being orally raped while she was having a C-section. The nurses filmed it and put it on twitter in an attempt to raise awareness/ensure something was done. Which worked. Unfortunately the video was then shared and reshared and watches repeatedly, mostly by men. So in addition to the initial violation the video of that violation became one of the most watched videos on Twitter. How awful to have footage of your rape whilst you were unconscious viewed by so many strangers. The (mostly men) resharing the video were not doing it to "raise awareness". Awareness had already been raised. They were sharing it for their own personal gratification (whether sexual or otherwise.)

Likely, while awareness of child sexual abuse is important.... The clamouring on here for details, the crossness that a story wasn't pushed hard enough by the media (it was reported extensively and was there if you looked), the demand for a feeding frenzy, gossipping about all the information you were able to dig up. The (false) claims that it would have been reported more if the perpetrators weren't (according to speculation) from a minority along with a sense of personal grievance that you are being deprived somehow by this imaginary decision...

None of that is coming from a place of concern for the children..it isn't. People need to be honest with themselves. It doesn't have to be sexual voyeurism. It might be coming from a need to create a victim/rescuer dynamic. Or because knowing about horrible things is entertainment. But it's still not a nice thing to do.