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Does Anne Diamond have a point?

60 replies

Ilovemyself · 31/05/2013 10:18

Anne Diamond has been quoted as saying that some of the victims of celebrity sex abuse may have been groupies who hung around waiting for celebs.

Whilst I am not condoning any predetary sex offences, should anyone who wanted a liaison with a "star" be looked at differently.

OP posts:
Feenie · 31/05/2013 16:46

Yep, totally agree. Good post, ImTooHecsy.

janey68 · 31/05/2013 17:07

But it's not distinguishing a 14 year old from a 20 year old is it, it's distinguishing a 15 from a 16 year old which is actually the real issue here. Because much as people might like the idea of some 25 yr old guideline, the legal age of consent ( in the uk) is 16. I certainly wouldn't be confident of whether a girl or boy is 15 or 16

The ID idea... Hmm, do you know how many teenagers use fake ID to enable them to get or do something they want!

janey68 · 31/05/2013 17:11

Actually an ID idea could really backfire, because its a legitimate defence if the over age person believes beyond reasonable doubt that the other person is 16 (this applies to those between 13 and 16)
A determined teenager WILL get fake ID. It then plays into the hands of someone who might, without the fake ID, have doubts ...

seeker · 31/05/2013 17:15

"My point was should a celeb have to ask for a birth certificate of everyone the sleep with? I know it can be difficult to tell the age of some these days"

If there is any doubt, then yes. Or not have sex with her. It's not compulsory, you know!

meditrina · 31/05/2013 17:16

Big acts attract loads of groupies.

Only a few are accused of sexual offences.

Why?

They are surrounded by a retinue, and it's easy to have your crew pre-select who actually reaches their idols. So there are those who want to use groupies as NSA fun, who do bother about age and consent, those that are reckless (which can tip into abuse/criminality), and those who deliberately seek out the youngest on offer. The latter two types need to be held to account. Most acts don't put themselves in that position.

Ilovemyself · 31/05/2013 17:49

I am not, of course, saying that they are right for sleeping with someone that is underage.

I just wonder are there people out there who made an honest mistake once who are likely to be tarred with the same brush as someone who is predatory and should they be treated the same.

OP posts:
NiceTabard · 31/05/2013 19:26

I think this is being over-complicated somewhat.

There seems to be an assumption that older teenaged girls (and boys?) say 14/15 who manage to have some kind of consensual interaction with someone they idolise will then randomly report them for molesting them decdes later. That seems to me to come from the same place as the idea that women have consensual sex which they regret the next morning and go and report the man for rape. ie it assumes that people who say bad stuff has happened are lying about activity that was actually consensual, for some reason that is never fully explained.

Secondly we are talking here about children of a variety of ages coming forward separately to report. If they are reporting then presumably they are not happy about what happened (in accordance with the first point) and given the timescales involved I sincerely doubt that the police are going to act without a fair number of victims who tell corroborative stories and don't know each other.

I just think that it boils down to "we believe you". If a person or people say that they were abused by someone, then the starting point should be to believe them and investigate. In this situation too many people seem to take the starting point that the victims are not being honest.

If a man has a string of 14 year old girls lodge complaints about him having sex with them, then the right thing to do is to look into it, right? Not to say, well, I dunno, 14yo girls have consensual sex sometimes, and even though they don't make police reports about it, well still it casts these accusations in a different light.

I don't really understand where people like Anne Diamond are coming from with this.

LineRunner · 31/05/2013 22:52

I do agree with NiceTabard, very much so.

The previous defence of the accused has always been simply to say, 'They're making it up.'

Well, hey, Stuart Hall, anyone?

minnehaha · 04/06/2013 21:24

Surprised there's been no more comment since she clarified her views - see she has a point now?

Feenie · 04/06/2013 21:34

What clarification - haven't seen it?

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