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/

Brazil.

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?
Not just on Mumsnet

Sadly some cases are getting less coverage depending on race as it’s inciting more hatred in the country. The immediate comments are always asking nationality, so the press may be staying away from that. As the rape of a toddler sparked outrage due to nationality

I’m not accusing the OP of racism. I am accusing her of having a prurient interest in a horrible crime where releasing more information would compromise the privacy the children involved.

However, it is undeniable that there is a group of people whose interests in crimes is directly dependent on the ethnicity of the criminal. I am not suggesting anyone on this thread fits into that category.

@PeonyBulb what the entire hell is wrong with you, posting those buts of information?? The kids could be easily identifiable now.

that is such an awful story

Some are saying that if there is no institutional failure then there is no reason to go big on the story.

It's odd, though - because when there IS institutional failure eg social services foul up, there never seems to be any accountability whatsoever and like the poor children in the above story, the guilty social workers are unable to be named, retaining anonymity!

Sorry I misread

A year ago when the perpetrators first came to court to enter pleas the local newspaper reported that the family were originally from Bangladesh and the grandfather needed an interpreter.

Hardly a secret.

This is awful

Well exactly, I can find tons of stories of familial abuse in local news that isnt on the BBC or 'big sites', they're reported but sometimes not realy beyond local news

There is unfortunately, tons of it.

It’s only rural in parts, the coast has turned into one endless town because of house building between Bogor, Littlehampton and Worthing. May as well be a city there’s not much that separates them

This story is much bigger / worse than a typical familial abuse one.

It's worse than the Fritzl story.

No
Its the combination of there was no institutional failure and it not being that rare,** and the papers being limited in what they report so it's harder to make the story compelling unless they just lean into the really prurient details.

What is the reason you think more awarenes does need to be raised? How would making this story front page news help?
Ok the nothing changes, I agree with you that mass outrage alone doesn't change anything. However, afternsome past institutional failures there have been changes made to procedures. Eg part of the reason we have safeguarding laws and training is because of past failures by people.in power. Those laws and training and awareness do make a difference.

**Fortunately that number of people are few and far between. But in a population of millions family based child sexual abuse is the most common form of swxual abuse. And often involves abuse over years paired with physical abuse. And sadly also involves multiple perpetrators.

Well no

Lots of family abuse cases involve years of abused. It's not that unusual for it to involve multiple perpetrators. Because you are quoting details it sounds unusually horrific. But those sort of horrific details -being ignored and physically hurt when trying to recount abuse, the unnecessary cruelty are normal within abuse cases. Child abuse is inherently horrific. The details are always going to be awful. There's no child sexual abuse that is "nice". And the people that abuse or facilitate abuse are cruel people.

Fritz was unusual because he was able to keep a whole family locked up and hidden for years. So the size of the story came from that aspect. Not because it's so unbelievable that a father would abuse his own child.

True - but there has been another case (in fact I think two) of British Fritzls in the last 20 years.

For one of them it was reported that a man kidnapped and held a child in a dungeon in his home for months or even years - I know for a fact in that one there were major court restrictions on what could be reported, and that might explain why that man (who the court did allow to be named) is not a household name.

Im sorry to tell you this, this isnt unsual

And in most cases is either not prosecuted or is but no convictions/case breaks down

What is unusual is that the police kept pursuing this, Ive worked with many a family with integenerational abuse and rarely are prosecutions made. The children withdraw their allegations, police deem it NFA even though we as professionals know what is happening. Children born of incest but we cant prove it etc.