Founder of Surrey Pride charged with child sex abuse

[CriticalCondition]

Gosh. I remember this person from a few years ago when Starbucks was doing its Mermaid biscuits campaign. A local councillor (?) raised her concerns about safeguarding at Mermaids and he had a real go at her.

BBC News - Surrey Pride founder faces child sex abuse charges
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c0k4g6ek3xvo

Seeing how the police are reacting in that photo while we read about their failures to protect women and children is sickening.

Interesting that the original seems to have been deleted between you sharing and now!

Reminded me of the man who was setting up a Pride event in a small town in Wales last year.

Read about him here
https://www.countytimes.co.uk/news/23709827.welshpool-powys-pride-organiser-admits-child-sex-offences/

Shocked, i tell you.

Poor kids. Everyone too busy yassing these perverts to protect them from them.

TRA who encouraged kids to get involved in drag is a nonce.

What a surprise 🤔

They've taken it down (or their whole account).

They've taken it down (or their whole account).

I think that is due to a combination of factors: Including the exclusion and bullying of women and lesbians who understand the reality of biological sex; the over focus on 'the TQ+' at the expense of the LGB; the excessive focus on drag ( and what has become of DQST etc), and also the focus on sexual fetish.

Personally think Pride had already had its day...and it is now just becoming about flagrant exhibitionsim and entitlement.

Account is still there https://x.com/PrideInSurrey

Tweet is gone, though.

Those poor children. How many more of these evil men are out there revelling in TQ+ immunity from everything?

If there's an opportunity to offend where it's difficult for people to question these men, that's dangerous and they will take the opportunity.
Seems like Pride would be a good place to hide as concerns can be claimed to be homophobia.
See also, the Church, TV presenters.

I can't open the archive link, could someone screenshot it to here please?

I notice someone says that anyone asking questions about Pride or criticising Pride as an overall concept sounds 'homophobic'.

This is exactly how sacred castes are created. A group that cannot be questioned or criticised is an abuser's dream. If you create a group that is beyond question or criticism, it is pretty much guaranteed that abusers will notice and use this status to access victims.

This is how many powerful men groom whole groups.

Worth noting that on Surrey Police's post about this arrest, an ex Trustee for Pride in Surrey talks about how she was accused of 'trying to sabotage the community' when she raised concerns about one of the men accused.

'As a former trustee for Pride in Surrey, I raised my concerns with the team just after lockdown about Mr Irelands behaviour around 17 year old boys.
Most of the core team, the directors, the CEO, the finance manager and other key team members stood by whilst Mr Ireland shouted and ranted at me, calling me uneducated and not someone he wanted on his team.
I stood down at that point as I was afraid of being seen as complicet by not doing anything about my concerns.
I was then "banned" from attending the pride event that year.
Several people associated with pride in surrey accussed me of trying to sabotage the community, and I got several unpleasant messages at the time and lost friends over it.
When you can clearly see that something isn't right and others choose to bury their heads in the sand, this is what happens.
Young people have now been scared for life, and will live with this everyday.
I sincerely hope that those who didn't listen and doubted me and the few who did stand with me, are ashamed of themselves.
This has severely damaged the cause and what we stand for, but at least I can hold my head high, in the knowledge that I spoke up.
There are still some in the organisation that like young boys, how long before they are outed and dismissed?'

Tweet.

@nauticant That photo - what are the police thinking? Actually, they’re not thinking - they’re just desperate to look “right on” hanging out with the cool kidz 🤮

Horrific crimes if proven.
But why is this in Sex and Gender and why are people saying 'but this never happens!'
Is there any indication that this is a gender issue? Unless there is more going on than in the article this is evil men being evil men. The link to Pride is coincidental.

Feminists are concerned quite a lot with male violence and male sexual abuses.

And if you read my post above, with the statement from one of the Pride trustees, and think about it, you may see the problem.

Plus, this is a man who has actively slurred and attacked feminists (he uses the term 'terfs'). Damn right it concerns us!

Again, worth noting that 'Pride' has managed to achieve a status where when people ask questions or raise concerns, others say 'why are you even talking about it?' or wonder if that makes someone 'homophobic' or 'transphobic', even when, as is often the case, it's gay or lesbian people who are doing the questions. In fact, especially then.

This is the very problem we have been warning people about for years.

Also, and sorry for the Columbo posts, 'Pride in Surrey' is a political organisation that does a lot of activism for 'gender' ideology. It influences the police, libraries, the community. It is actively anti feminist. 'Anti terf' is how it would phrase it.

So this is completely and totally pertinent to this board.

The "but this never happens" is wearily ironic. For years women (including many of us who are lesbians) have been pointing out that forbidding people to challenge or question certain individuals or groups about safeguarding / boundaries / extreme sexualisation aimed at the young, enables predators to go unnoticed. We're always told that this is the exception - it never happens.
Unfortunately the reality is (according to Ministry of Justice data) that there's an over representation of sexual offences committed by men demanding that women and children's boundaries must be eroded / men claiming to be women.

The standard response to various safeguarding concerns raised by feminists is, "But that never happens". That has prompted an FWR thread called something like, "This never happens" and it's become an expression whenever there's a news story about the sort of safeguarding failure that women/feminists warn about and is dismissed or derided.

Case in point, Galliford, the campaign against Lisa Townsend, and now the trustee.

ETA: xd with MrsOverton

Celebrity in general has become the new Church? I remember Ruby Wax saying she had to come to London to have a career in satire. Because in the US people lavish praise on celebrities. They are successful, rich and famous - why would you criticise them? But that was in the 90s. Perhaps this facet of American culture is more dominant now. It was always there of course - Savile - but it seems to have blown up since the millennium.

Good question. Why? Perhaps Lisa asked too many questions for their liking.

(edited to make clear who I am referring to)