8 year old girl admits lying about rape allegations

[FlyMeToDunoon]

I felt really sad about this for more than one reason.
here

I have just been watching this case being discussed on the wright stuff. Am HORRIFIED at comments.

They have been CONVICTED of a serious sex crime, yet thier guilt is still being questioned! Usually in rape cases people say 'innocent until proven guilty' but here they HAVE been proven guilty, yet they are still being discussed as if they are innocent. MW has actually said that the girl 'wasnt harmed' by what happened to her!

And he said it was one person's word against another, when there was a witness who saw the boys 'hurting' her.

I HATE THAT MAN

This has set me thinking because I was attacked by three ten year old boys when I was also ten. They threatened to rape me if I didn't allow one of them to 'touch me up'. I tried to escape but it was three against one. They counted to ten to give me time to decide what my choice was going to be and I just could not think quickly enough. When they reached number 10 all three grabbed me and ripped by shirt straight down the front--I had hit puberty and it was not good. I had to capitulate and let one of them put his hand down my knickers for a feel. They all thought it was funny. It was terrifying, humiliating, shameful.

I don't know if it would have stopped there but luckily a man walking his dog intervened to ask what was going on and I made my escape.

This event obviously had a profound effect on me, to say the least, but I never told anyone for fear of getting into trouble. If I had told, I'm not sure what would have happened to the boys (this was back in the 70s). Perhaps they would have been reprimanded in some way and that would have helped me to understand that what happened was not my fault.

Some people have been asking about the background to the boys in this case. I don't know anything about that. In my case, one of the boys (I knew them all) had a reputation as a bully. He had older brothers and came from a pretty rough family. He was the ringleader. I think the other two boys (who I thought were my friends) were probably afraid of him, that he would turn his attention on them. The ringleader/bully also said that earlier in the day his older brother's girlfriend had shown him her 'cunt', so maybe part of the answer lies there ... Now we live in a much more sexualised culture so I don't think an irresponsible sibling would be needed, internet sex, movies and all of that can be corrosive and easily accessed.

I imagine that since the boys in this case have been convicted of attempted rape the evidence against tham must be pretty compelling. On the other hand, a trial like this does not seem to be good for anyone ...

Sorry but it's ludicrous to blame this on 'internet porn'. Children learn to bully and abuse by being bullied and abused. It may not be the parents of the boys in this case (though TBH it usually is the parents), it could be a family friend, an uncle, etc - but someone has taught them that it's fine to use force against people smaller and weaker than yourself to get what you want.

Another fucking article on teh BBC

it argues that the children were charged for statutory rape, and so the jury did not have to give any consideration as to whether the girl was consenting or not as at 8 she legally cannot give consent.

BUT THEY MADE HER TAKE HER KNICKERS DOWN
THEY THREATENED HER
THEY ASSAULTED HER

Sorry for shouting but this is really fucking me off now. The article is WRONG.
The article goes on and on about criminilising normal child sexual behaviour. But FORCING someone to perform sex acts is not normal child sexual behaviour.

They were found guilty of attempted rape. Why why WHY is everyone desperately trying to say that it was a game and they did nothing wrong? I don't understand.

So if a 10yo rapes my 2yo, that is FINE is it? Just a GAME?

For fucks SAKE

Pornography consistently glamourises rape and humiliation, so I would imagine is a contributing factor indeed

I too am shocked by the determination of commentators to deny that anything bad has happened here. According to Mary Riddell in the Torygraph (who I never had down as any kind of idiot) (here) it was ' not far removed from a playground game of ?doctors and nurses?'. Something else I read (can't find it now though) said that if this was a crime everyone they played with as children would have been in trouble

It's one thing to say this wasn't the way to try this crime and these boys may not be capable of knowing what they were doing, but ffs, a girl has been hurt and traumatised here and what these boys did is not normal behaviour. Though if we pretend it is, we are halfway towards letting it become so.

x-posts ISNT, & agree with every word you said.

Thanks LG.

I wan't blaming it on the internet, though, but suggesting that the impetus doesn't have to come from simply from a particular set of home relationships. When you are thinking about a environment it makes sense to me that access to pornography and/or violent images is a factor.

I am going bananas here.

i don;t know what to do.

The way that article on teh BBC starts, as if the CPS are on a mission to convict primary school boys of rape. What? the comments afetr the article. Sickening.

God, thats awful SWD Im so sorry for you.

I really hate this whole case. It just makes me so angry and sad. I work in a prison with a therapeutic regime and from speaking with officers and psychologists its so hard to re-educate adult rapists that rape is bad because its so undermined by the legal system and society. I can't help but think of the parents of both the boys and the girl.

Thanks LWW. I too am thinking of the little girl and those boys and the families.

turns out it was Virginia Ironside in the Independent here who thinks all children do this (apologies if someone has already linked to this.)
Funny not to be able to tell the difference between consensual kissing and cuddling and two boys forcing a girl who is younger than them to take her knickers down and assaulting her.
at the very least it is sexual bullying of a very unpleasant variety - why on earth are all these commentators denying it is even that? What is going on?

My dad reads the independent and I saw it earlier. I usually think it's a pretty good paper (it is my choice when I buy one). And was horrified to read the main article, and 2 or 3 opinion pieces, all saying that this thing that happened was a non-event, a game.

Do they know something that we don;t?
Do they know something that the jury doesn't?

ShallWeDance what a horrible thing to happen.

When I was 7 a local boy much older than me took me to an isolated place and started doing the whole 'I'll show you mine' thing. I was extremely scared and isolated and had my dad not come looking for me I am pretty sure that worse would have happened.

My lasting memory of the whole thing was my dad shouting at me and making me eat my cold dinner for wondering off without saying where I was going. I only told my mum when I was 21 years old.

I hate to think that had I reported it I would have been dis-believed or blamed in some way.

Independent main piece

heading

"Schoolboys convicted of attempted rape of eight-year-old girl"

sub heading

"Charities disappointed with outcome of 'doctors and nurses' trial"

???

I really expected something diffent from the independent, and am really shocked by that sub heading. it's worthy of a tabloid.

that's a very good point SGM.
I have a 10 year old nephew. If I found him playing 'doctors and nurses' with a girl of his own age or younger I would think something very odd was going on. Hell, I would be surprised even if his 7 yo brother did it.

Can I just ask, does anybody know for sure what happened, has a transcript of events been released? It's just I haven't really heard any proper details about the case. From what I gathered it appeared to be "you show me your's and I'll show you mine". Was she forced to do it? Obviously that changes things, but the way it's being portrayed in the media is that it was a wholly consensual thing. A game. Is this not the case?

Why is porn so easy to view on the internet. I don't understand - you google "porn" and there it is. WHY?

If kids view it - what are they going to think?

DF thank goodness your dad came along.

Agreed, LG.

Shallwe: so sorry to read this
Maria: how awful for the girl in question. You are kind to feel sympathy for the headteacher, but what was she thinking?

10-2. Ten to Two ? I didn't think that would pass in such a case.
I have heard the news and it is on the radio. And I am being given conflicting info. One saying she was penetrated. one now saying she wasn't.
I really feel that I don't know enough about this case to comment.
But the whole thing still saddens me.
And people re-actions, the linked articles, and programmes analysing it, making it sound as if it was JUST Dr's and nurses. come on now.