General Chat

Our Supercrutch has asked me to post the following on her behalf . . .

I am part of an abuse survivors' support group. They have all been incredibly brave in telling their stories. In many cases they have not been believed until an investigation such as the one into Ted Heath has been initiated.

They work tirelessly in supporting other victims and coaxing their stories from them, often leaving the victim traumatised again.

They fight 24/7 and have to listen to heart-rending accounts of abuse and are often, even now, vilified for telling their stories by people who do not understand.

Of course, those abusers that have died will not face justice and we are all hoping for a 'live one' to face trial. I am referring to abusers that have been protected for decades by the higher powers to protect governments.

The two areas of satisfaction which may come from proper investigation and reporting are: the victims will be believed and the abuser will have their history rewritten to reflect their true character.

KathleenBell I certainly do think that you have a point about the Police Officer! Keeping quiet for all these years is certainly questionable!!

Well, some of us have a different take on this and far as I'm concerned I'll just have to agree to differ. Not sure that Edward Heath was or is particularly well thought of anyway and proving his guilt if anyone can, seems to me to be a pointless exercise and the money better spent elsewhere. But that's just my opinion, other people are certainly entitled to theirs.

I'm talking to anyone who does not have experience of child abuse in their family - what facts am I supposed to get right?

i agree, this might well be a release of pent up emotions for the victims who were not believed... death should not offer protection from the truth.

There maybe nothing more the victims needs than to let the world know how they were fooled and see the crown fall.

Ann if you are talking to me get your facts right please .I will not go into any details .its like Gr police on here .I have said how I feel :-(

thank you Kay - you obviously understand :-)

Why should these people dead or alive (if proven ) public and written about accolades remain un-tarnished as a paragon of virtue when they have a sordid hidden vile past that remains a living nightmare of any victims......they need stripping of all awards......... :-P :-|.........

well quite obviously you've never had a child of yours who was abused

Magpie Totally agree with what you are saying .we cant always make right the wrongs of others .but society has job to do & make it a safer place now & in the future .

not pointless - and if you have experience in such matters you would not think it pointless either

I agree with the OP, what on earth is the point of spending scant resources on something that can't be categorically proved, because the person concerned has been dead for over ten years. Surely the large sum of money this investigation will cost would be better spent on making sure that any form of abuse is stamped on, and never allowed to happen again. You can't alter the past, but can make a brighter future. And yes I do know what I'm talking about, and for me dragging up the past particularly now the person concerned is dead would be quite pointless, much better to use whatever is needed to try and ensure that it can ever happen to anyone else.

I think the police are more interested in finding the people who covered up any alleged crime. They are probably still alive and could be doing the same thing at the moment.

I also think the police officer who brought this case to light has a lot to answer for. I can understand that he was a young police officer at the time and was doing as he was told to let the case drop. But did he really have to keep quiet for so long, looking after his own career and pension and waiting until he had retired before bringing the case to light? Surely he could have done that when he was a more senior officer. He was obviously more interested in furthering his own career before coming clean.

Kath. x

The victims deserve to be heard...

there is every point - think of the victims - they need to be shown, even at this late stage, that this will be investigated - if you were a victim, wouldn't you want to be vindicated - people probably said the alleged victims were talking rubbish when they obviously were not - you donlt know what you're talking about until you have some experience of what victims suffer - many for the rest of their lives - comments like this make me so very angry

I don't think it is Ted, they are after.............

I can see your point Maggie, but how can there be justice when the perpetrator has been dead 10 years, Jimmy Sa-vile is not bothered by all the fuss? Just his family and friends.

Surely enough "lessons have been learned" to put a stop to it now, so we don't have cases in another 10 or 20 years like this. Is it not better to use limited resources to prevent more children being abused today?

Thats how it was initially reported - Wiltshire police were investigating how an accusation was handled at the time.

I think that this type of case is more to do with accusations being brushed under the carpet, as it were ...........as in perverting the course of justice,

but other than that ........

edited.....
I rather fancy that if it were the OTHER Ted Heath they WOULD have been followed up

??