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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

India Knight

323 replies

Bitofanexpert · 20/04/2021 10:41

I take it mentioning her or her partner is banned.

Can I just say how utterly disgusted I am from learning about the actions of her partner on here- and nearly just as much from the lack of reporting of this by the press and on here too? Disgraceful. The man still has the gall to have a live Twitter account!!!

OP posts:
Theluggage15 · 20/04/2021 18:49

I remember also, several weeks ago she wrote a column about how she was sick of reading about how young people and children had suffered during lockdown. It was absolutely full of bile about how pathetic they and their parents were. Their parents were indulging them, what nonsense about mental health etc etc. Really nasty. It was pointed out in the comments that someone who lives with a paedophile has no right to comment about the well-being of children.

She literally just crashes around saying what she likes, horrible woman.

mosgirl · 20/04/2021 18:49

Zarinea it was reported at the time, but nowhere near as widely as you might have expected given his profile and the nature of the crime. When I realised that India Knight was the stepdaughter of a Times media mogul I wrote to them to complain about the lack of coverage. I got no response.

AccidentallyOnPurpose · 20/04/2021 18:52

[quote Zarinea]It was widely reported at the time. They're a horrible pair, but his convictions haven't been hidden.

www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2020/aug/07/ex-labour-mp-eric-joyce-gets-suspended-jail-sentence-over-child-abuse-image[/quote]
Not as widely as one would expect. Which is part of the problem.

Not to mention her awfully dismissive tweet of "it was two years ago" , how horrible it was for her to be made public but no one worry "she's fine". Without actually mentioning the issue.

Even worse, her Twitter fans supported her and "welcomed her back" with open arms.

Chicchicchicchiclana · 20/04/2021 18:53

I do hope that HQ will reconsider this subject as being "not in the spirit" of Mumsnet. I believe child abuse, images of child abuse, watching images of child abuse, excusing the watching of images of child abuse, continuing to minimise the crimes of the watcher of child abuse - all of these are very much not in the spirit of Mumsnet either.

tttigress · 20/04/2021 18:56

Erm, even without the child abuse stuff his other alcohol/violence related convictions show him to be the sort of person that wouldn't want to be within a mile off.

stackemhigh · 20/04/2021 18:58

And his campaigning for men to use women’s spaces...he just sounds worse and worse.

LolaSmiles · 20/04/2021 18:59

Chicchicchicchiclana
I agree. To be honest if anything is an appropriate topic for a parenting site it is safeguarding.

The only people who benefit from making safeguarding a taboo topic are the people who seek to behave in ways that are incompatible with safeguarding, or have beliefs/values that are incompatible with safeguarding.

bytheby · 20/04/2021 18:59

I cancelled my Times subscription for this reason last year. I encourage others to do the same. Take note Times PR team.

The truth is I miss the Times and would be back in a heart beat if she no longer wrote for them. She isn't even an interesting writer.

Jarstastic · 20/04/2021 19:03

I’m wondering whether to cancel my times only d subscription.

I suppose I could only get the times when I shop in Waitrose and get it for free, but I assume they’d get the money from them instead.

Jarstastic · 20/04/2021 19:03

(Online subscription)

Blyatiful · 20/04/2021 19:04

Her mother is/was Pakistani and her father was Belgian. Her real name is Giselle Aertsens. Before she changed it when she was about 17.

bytheby · 20/04/2021 19:08

@Jarstastic when I cancelled mine they asked me the reason and then said a few people were cancelling for the same reason... Apparently not enough or she wouldn't still be there!

Just mentioning because it is good to know a human does listen to your motives and anger. If it is the same as last year you actually have to cancel via a phone call with a human anyway (there is no online option).

Alsohuman · 20/04/2021 19:21

@Thisisworsethananticpated

So why start a thread in her name

He’s the bad one (and his actions were heinous)

But what’s the burn the witch shit

Start a thread about that fucking nonce

He got an incredibly lenient sentence because she stood by him in court. And the reason his conviction got so little media coverage is because she pulled strings. She’s as bad as he is.
Jarstastic · 20/04/2021 19:23

[quote bytheby]@Jarstastic when I cancelled mine they asked me the reason and then said a few people were cancelling for the same reason... Apparently not enough or she wouldn't still be there!

Just mentioning because it is good to know a human does listen to your motives and anger. If it is the same as last year you actually have to cancel via a phone call with a human anyway (there is no online option).[/quote]
Thanks for telling me. Smile

mosgirl · 20/04/2021 19:46

I'm actually glad this thread is on here. I felt like a lone voice in the wilderness when I complained to the Times and cancelled my subscription.

littlbrowndog · 20/04/2021 19:53

Imagine standing by a man who viewed pics of children and babies being sexually abused

Sadsiblingatsea · 20/04/2021 20:04

The fact that Eric Joyce got a suspended sentence for this disgusting crime is ... just no words.

AesopsMables · 20/04/2021 20:08

Thank you for making this more public. Times subscription now cancelled (I never read her article anyway as she is not a beauty guru I could ever be influenced by)

Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g · 20/04/2021 21:00

Eric Joyce was a pitiful apology for a human being even before this. What on earth could have made his partner think her best course of action was to stay with him? She's always been a Poly Filler type, and there's no shortage of those. I find it hard to believe that The Times/Sunday Times would suffer any loss of circulation if they'd failed to renew her contract. Obviously she is not responsible for Joyce's acts, but where is her judgement? Where is her moral compass? How could she put her daughter and her own reputation at risk like this?

KeyboardWorriers · 20/04/2021 21:28

Like others, normally I am not keen on the spotlight being on the partner of someone who committed crimes. But these are heinous crimes that harm the youngest and most vulnerable in society in a brutal fashion.

And further when we see the media furore over utter minutiae when it comes to some people in the public eye, it seems even more intolerable that someone with media connections is able to keep a story about a public figure almost out of the press entirely.

MrsBobDylan · 20/04/2021 21:28

Journalism is the absolute worst for posh people giving jobs to their own kind. India Knight is an excellent example of this.

Thought the Julie Birchall article was brilliant. A woman who has been torn apart by the press but who is still writing by merit of her intelligence, tenacity and sheer guts.

There was a case a couple of years ago about a young teacher who was caught taking indecent pictures of children he tutored. He told the judge that he 'wanted to settle down and start a family' and got away with no custodial sentence. Then went to become a teacher in Spain and on to abuse children again.

Joyce is a criminal who should have been jailed. What message does it send to other child abusers, what exactly have they to fear?

Cocolapew · 20/04/2021 21:33

I knew about Eric Joyce but only through seeing it on Twitter.
I see I've been deleted on that 2012 threadHmm

WalkinginMemphis2 · 20/04/2021 21:55

Man alive this is hideous! I have a lot of digital news subscriptions and have not heard a sausage on this until now, and the court case happened last year. How on earth did he get a suspended sentence. Terrifying. Just read the JB article.....I’m actually a speechless.

SunscreenCentral · 20/04/2021 22:43

I’m too tired to comment on the Burchill piece. She’s conflated so many things to suit her agenda.

That said, regarding her central point - she’s 100% correct - there has been a carefully curated silence here. I keep fairly well up with current affairs nationally, internationally, and hadn’t heard a single peep about this.

JackieWeaverHandforthCouncil · 20/04/2021 23:21

I recall his name and remember something about drunken violence but not the peadophilia! Disgusting.

There’s clearly been a serious attempt by the media to bury this story. Megan Markle doesn’t wear tights and there are hundreds of articles and opinion pieces yet a peadophile conviction barely gets mentioned to the point many of us are only hearing about if for the first time today and it happened almost a year ago?

Heinous and scary.

As an aside read about two paragraphs of that Birchill column and whilst she’s right about the cover up she’s gone so over the top with her various agendas that she’s spoiled her article. It reads like a late night drunken rant.