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January 19, 2005
A travesty of justice
A news item caught my eye last week which highlights something I have long felt. It transpires that the "Shaken Baby Syndrome" is a complete myth, a hypothesis with no scientific foundation at all to support it, yet, on the evidence of now discredited "Experts" who made names for themselves accusing parents whose children had died, most probably of natural or accidental causes, of abuse, ninety-six parents are currently locked away, their children given out for adoption or in "care" because social workers and certain "experts" in the medical profession have pursued a false and evil agenda.
I had barely put down that particular newspaper when there was an advert on the television from a large "children's charity" pushing this "scientific" fact that babies are being shaken to death by their parents as we watch this. The newspaper asked the question, how have we got our legal system into this state? Easy; too many scientifically void theories are being talked up and touted as fact or as proof by people whose only agenda is to make a name for themselves or support a runaway industry of nannying interference in family life. There is far too much emphasis on social engineering and too little on fact and the realities of life.
It seems that the world today is run by "special interest" groups - or in newspeak - "Focus Groups", who push one particular line without any regard for consequences and impact upon other facets of life. This child protection racket has now reached proportions where no parent is ever safe from being accused of "abusing" their children, and the children are being encouraged to defy every more which holds society together. Let us be clear on one thing, there is child abuse, it does happen, but it is nowhere near as widespread as the child protection racketeers would have you believe. In their efforts to "protect" the children they have destroyed childhood, they are destroying families, and the revelation of this miscarriage of justice shows that at least 96 families and individual's lives have been destroyed as well. Something that really flags up, for me at any rate, the lack of honesty and real foundation in this, was the instruction from the Home Office recently pointing out that the child abuse statistics showed that fewer "middle income earners" were being prosecuted for abusing their children than were parents in the lower income groups. It went on to advice that more effort should be made to target these famillies! Hasn't it occured to them that families in this group are probably less likely to beat their kids black and blue?
One mother whose appeal has been successful and which also exposed the extent of this appalling abuse, - one almost says rape - of justice, has now also been refused any compensation for her wrongful imprisonment for the last three years by the Home Office. Frankly, the civil servants who refused her that compensation and those who have actively worked to create the mess that is the "Family Courts" in which the accusers hold all the cards and the accused can very rarely defend themselves because they are not allowed to know what evidence is held or who has accused them if it is a child, should be dismissed and publically exposed as the persons responsible. The "child protection" lobbyists who have campaigned to maintain these false accusations should also be exposed and made to publically apologise and the agencies fined to provide the compensation.
Salem and the Witchfinder General are alive and well and living in the UK. The Witchfinder Army is thriving in its new guise as the Social Services and the Child Protection agencies. Yes, there is abuse, the problem is that they have now, by their perversion of the justice system, cast doubt on the true problem. By accusing parents on such flimsy and totally unproven evidence these services and organisations have created a situation in which the real cases of abuse may become increasingly hard to "prove" because more and more frequently the evidence will be discredited precisely because it is no longer trusted! Just as in the days of the Witchfinder General and the Witchfinder Army, this zealotry breeds a reaction, usually the opposite of what the zealots are trying to create.
The author of the newspaper article asked the question "How have we allowed our justice system to become so flawed?" The answer is very simple, and very frightening. By allowing it to become the preserve of "experts" and of the vested interests of the "Law Society" and the "Bar Council", by allowing precedents to be set and to remain unchallenged, we have piled up a body of deeply flawed case law precedents which now mean that judges hearing that "Sir Somebody Bighead", the expert in, for example, "Recovered Memory Syndrome" is of the opinion that ... and the accused might as well pack up his or her defence and plead guilty whether they are or not. From there on in they will not be believed, but the expert will remain unchallenged - primarily because none of his or her peers wish to risk their careers in calling the "Expert's" bluff!
Jury trials have become a farce because juries are no longer composed of people who are fully representative, but rather of anybody who couldn't find a suitable excuse not to do it. And, all too often, anybody who turns up looking even slightly middle class is likely to spend two weeks sitting ariound and being rejected by the defence at every trial. The other problem is that the evidence is now so complex and frequently so scientific that many jurors cannot follow it. Given that the average person's attention span is about twenty minutes at the outside (some say as little as 30 seconds!) it is not easy to stay awake, or even to keep focused in an uncomfortable jury box (I am 6'2", and the seats are too low and the leg room too short for me!) it is nothing short of amazing that any member of the jury is able to keep focused for a trial lasting sometimes three weeks and still keep a fair idea of what the arguments were.
Perhaps it is time to look seriously at this, to put aside the fears of "miscarriage" of justice if the jury system is done away with, and leave the consideration of the evidence to a team of people with the knowledge and qualifications to consider it and advise the Judge accordingly. I doubt it will fix the problem of the kangaroo nature of the courts in which any "child abuse" case tends to be heard, but it may help if the system allowed the jurors to demand qualification and proof of hypothesis from experts if this is not teased out under cross-examination.
In the meantime, let us hope that those jailed for non-existent "crimes" against their own tragic off-spring by the evidence of discredited and arrogant experts and the fawning social workers who are so quick to accuse parents, can be speedily re-examined and returned to normal life as soon as possible. And, let us hope that they receive the compensation that they should - preferably from the pockets of their accusers and the supporters of these arrogant and incompetent witchfinders!
Posted by The Gray Monk at January 19, 2005 10:07 AM