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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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Let's start with one important thing. Childen are not to be exploited. Kiddieporn is just plain wrong. And Operation Ore was designed to net a load of kiddieporn customers.
But it was flawed by manufactured evidence at source in Texas. And this means that innocent people who have simply bought lawful porn have been picked up in the net because the places they bought it used the same payment service provider.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/printFriendly/0,,1-523-1678810-523,00.html has a story from over a year ago, but people are unable ot unwilling to clear their names, either through ignorance or because they simply opt for "quiet". After all, who wants the neighbours to know that you really do masturbate and like looking at lawful porn when you do?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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The moral of that story is... don't buy legal porn either. Or pay for a meal at a restaurant in Yorkshire. Or, er, have a credit card.
The hysteria is so great now that there ought to be some mechanism for not revealing the identity of the defendant until he has been proven guilty. Otherwise a prosecution will ruin the life and the career of whomever is prosecuted, regardless of guilt. That makes a mockery of the whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing.
I suppose that is technically impossible.
David
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I all in favour of the identity of the accused being public knowledge. But - in some cases - perhaps it would be better for it not to be revealed until the case was actually in front of a jury.
I am *entirely* against the off-the-record tips, briefings, innuendos and hype that the police in the UK routinely provide to journalists in advance of arrests and investigations. This ensures a high level of media coverage which initialy makes the police look good, but little coverage is given when the suspects are then released without trial, or found innocent. It makes a fair trial almost impossible, and places enormous strain on the accused.
When police release information on intended arrests, or where members of the Government comment on suspects in advance of trial, I personally wish that our judges would rigorously impose the penalties available to them for conspiracy to pervert the course of Justice.
"The ultimate weakness of violence is that it is a descending spiral, begetting the very thing it seeks to destroy. ... Returning violence for violence multiplies violence, adding deeper darkness to a night devoid of stars." Martin Luther King
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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I'm afraid it is worse than that.
There is the case of a man who was accused, but acquitted, as part of Operation Ore. According to law, he should walk free from the court without a stain on his character. But, in extended Criminal records Bureau (CRB) checks, the police still reported the original allegations as if they are proven fact. Including assertions that he used his credit card on a child porn website, and the nature of the material which that website provided. This leaves his employment options severely limited. Even working as a licensed taxi driver requires an ECRB check.
In a similar case, of a former social worker acquitted of an offence of indecent exposure, the ECRB check and revelations of the allegations, prevented him from getting employment. He took the case as far as the Court of Appeal, which found in favour of the police force. LJ Woolf ruled that, despite the acquittal, the police must still produce the allegations when asked, even if "they only might be true", despite the acquittal, which was not itself challenged by prosecutors.
The implication of that ruling would seem to be that unless an unfair or malicious allegation can be completely disproved without any doubt whatsoever, it "might be true", and therefore will continue to be used against an individual throughout the rest of his life.
If an individual uses a newspaper to falsely accuse you of being a paedophile, you can resort to the laws of libel to restore your good name. The newspaper must prove that their allegation is not a misrepresentation. But it seems if the same individual makes the allegation to the police, yet after investigation the police find nothing to substantiate it, it will stay on your file and will constantly impinge on your life thereafter.
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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"There's no smoke without fire."
That is the attitude of both the man (or, more often, the woman) on the street and the police.
The thing is, even if you're completely cleared, I suppose there might be a higher probability than for the general population that one of the allegations was close to true, and you "asked for it" somehow. That is likely to make working with young people or children virtually impossible in the future. Hard luck if it was your career.
Mad, mad, mad. It has a horrible logic to it, though; that's what makes it all the more terrible for those who are genuinely innocent.
David
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Thousands of people were ruined by Joe McCarthey. There has to be some kind of safeguard against zelous people trying to administer the law. If you put a fundimentalist in charge of an operation like that then we are in trouble. We put a fundimentalist in the presidencey and look whats happened.
I believe in Karma....what you give is what you get returned........
Affirmation........Savage Garden
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timmy
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Has no life at all |
Location: UK, in Devon
Registered: February 2003
Messages: 13800
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It does rather fly in the face of the Daily Mail "Those with nothing to hide have nothing to fear" mantra, doesn't it?
Author of Queer Me! Halfway Between Flying and Crying - the true story of life for a gay boy in the Swinging Sixties in a British all male Public School
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saben
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On fire! |
Registered: May 2003
Messages: 1537
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Well, we need to make an example of SOMEONE. If we can't catch people that REALLY hurt children we need to find others to persecute. Just to set an example you see. That will stop the other paedophiles from trying anything similar!
Look at this tree. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me nor make it bear fruit before its time [...] No matter what you do, that seed will grow to be a peach tree. You may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Oogway
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