The shameful history of silence on child abuse | Nick Cohen

Although focused on the specifics of the charges against Jimmy Savile, who close their eyes to other forms of exploitation

change is indicated Christopher Marlowe

The Jew of Malta when Bernard, a priest, is accused of killing the Barabas antihero. "You have committed ..." begins. "Fornication?" Barabas interrupted while he distracts a capital crime footling cost too serious for people who are interested. "But that was in another country, and besides, the girl is dead."

Barabas claims costs that nobody could prove a sexual charge - "but that was in another country" - not a need for attention - "and besides the girl is dead" - persecuted writers and the public for centuries. TS Eliot used early

Portrait of a Lady

to illustrate the indifference to the suffering male female. PD James and Colin Dexter wove in his thrillers.

doubt if the words of Peter Rippon, Editor

Newsnight resounded through the centuries. But do not forget reluctance Marlovian who explained why he had chosen a survey Jimmy Savile. "

Newsnight not normally interested in celebrity talk," he said said he was a journalist in high forehead rather than one of these dirty tricks Lord Justice Grant Hugh Leveson and disapprove. "What was the public interest served by the report, because he's dead? The nature of the charges and the level of proof required. Fact that the incidents were 40 years ago."

Rippon left the others to say that Savile had abused young people in the 1960s in the premises of the BBC and charity homes for abandoned children. He regretted what he said today, in particular the management of the BBC, which, if the allegations are true, did nothing to stop Savile seem to be thinking about making a sacrificial offering of his career. However, the excuses for silence are as important as the facts of a case. With pedophilia scandals, there is a disconcerting consistency. The abuse happened long ago, nobody can prove respectable people should not take seriously the accusations. No need to care

If I believed in a god, I would call the child abuse scandal that has destroyed the reputation of the Catholic Church in Europe and North America divine justice. As I do not, I will stick to its symmetries repellents with Savile case. Abusive priests were once like celebrities. They were big names in their parishes. They performed good deeds, Savile is for charity. Children who were the first children to manage under the control of the church. Who would believe their stories, even if violence victims found the courage to tell him? When enough men and women showed that the value and the scandal could not be denied, the church rose to defend the murderers playing the victim.

• "From God comes the courage not to be intimidated by the gossip small," said Pope Benedict XVI, in the presentation of expenses impotence acts of aggression. At one point beyond satire, Household preacher Vatican, Father Raniero Cantalamessa, comparison was even more critical of the church record on abuse of children in the "more shameful aspects of anti-Semitism." The powerful are now the prey. His victims were the modern equivalent of the Nazis.

is a family investment. When reporters suggested that "young love Jimmy" Savile said he did not children - a revealing answer retrospectively. Has represented the rumor, saying he was a great man and a man and his enemies malicious assumptions made on this basis. Fame, like the priest, was the real object of pity. His accusers were fanciful or worse.

Irish atheist friends who have learned from experience not to believe a word that comes from the Catholic hierarchy, I say it smells a whiff of prejudice British Protestant convictions Catholic arrears. They have reason to believe that we have no reason to feel superior. English judicial hierarchy proved equally indifferent to child abuse. In the case of Roman Polanski, the judiciary imitated the Pope and all his cardinals to search for evidence of child abuse in the face, then turn counterclockwise. Polanski will be remembered, had fled to France to escape punishment for having sex with a 13 year old, who had supplied the drink and drugs in Los Angeles.

If you want to know why the British press suggested that Savile predilections, look what happened when Polanski asked the English courts for leave to bring an action Vanity
Fair aa to say he had made advances to a woman while he was on his way to the funeral of his wife. A terrible thing to say to a man of good reputation, no doubt, but how can we live pederast sentenced into exile to avoid a prison sentence may be considered as having a good reputation in the field of sexuality, he could defend the court ? Judges not only decided in 2005 that Polanski was a man of good reputation, pedophilia but also with concern that the Met would be arrested if he went to London. To save American justice, Polanski has given his testimony by video link from Paris.

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