Thursday 19 May 2011

Opening our eyes and seeing the bigger picture


One of the things which never ceases to amaze me is the way in which people commenting here apparently go out of their way to confirm what I am saying. I have remarked before that some of them seem almost like my sock puppets. The day before yesterday I posted about the New World Order and its popularity with some home educators. Somebody promptly posted a link to an Internet site called UK Column:




http://www.ukcolumn.org/articles/public-denied-right-%E2%80%9Csee-justice-being-done%E2%80%9D-manchester-trial-alleged-paedophile-martin-smi




This is of course a New World Order conspiracy site, one of those places where people who believe that the United Nations are taking over the world hang out. Even more perfectly for my purposes, the piece about Martin Smith is also to be found on David Icke's site! You couldn't, as they say, make it up.




One person commenting here seems to be hinting that there is something fundamentally unsound about Education Otherwise. He drew our attention to the case of Lianne Smith, who was a regional organiser for EO, involved in a local authority's Children's Services, married to a paedophile rapist and also killed her children. We were urged to 'open our eyes' and asked if we could see 'the bigger picture'. I interpreted this to mean that it was being suggested that this case was the tip of the iceberg and that other stuff like this was going on with Education Otherwise. I assume that this was the same person who posted details of a number of American home educators who abused or murdered their kids.


Now in any large organisation, one is bound to get the odd paedophile. This goes for children's charities as much as it does for insurance companies or banks. Enterprises involving children are bound to attract such characters more than most. This is because they offer the opportunity to gain access to children. This is why the child abusing scoutmaster has become such a stock figure and also why CRB checks are necessary. Such people gravitate towards schools and youth organisations, swimming pools and playgrounds. Some of them, those determined to surrender to their perverted lusts, get jobs at such places. For this reason, I always took it for granted that Education Otherwise was bound to have its share of child molesters hovering in the background.




Having said all this, as far as I am aware there have only been two verified incidents of this sort. One was the case of Lianne Smith and the other that of the longstanding trustee responsible for child protection, whose husband allegedly had unfortunate tastes of this sort. Obviously there are others who have not yet come to light, that is inevitable, but is the whole charity riddled with this sort of unsavoury activity? It seems unlikely. It is not however inconceivable and it might be helpful is the person who was hinting at this could give more details here. I am open minded about the possibility, but we certainly need a little more evidence. As I said above, one finds paedophiles all over the place and it would be surprising if EO did not turn out to have a few, but the suggestion seems to be that there are more than just a few. Can anybody shed any light on this idea?

7 comments:

  1. "This is why the child abusing scoutmaster has become such a stock figure and also why CRB checks are necessary."

    To have a clean record on CRB, only means someone has not been found out yet. CRB is only a brief snapshot of what has so far been/ has been found, or not found, but it does not mean that a person is not going to commit in the future. This is the moral of the most recent case in the local high school where I live. A very gifted teacher committed indecent acts with two girls. He has just been found guilty. CRB checks are useless. Use your common sense. Have a good relationship with your children and stay in tune with them.

    Ubuntu

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  2. I agree that CRB checks are only an indicator of past crimes and no protection against future abuse, but nevertheless they are some protection - they do weed out a few. They were, I think, the outcome of the Soham murders - and may therefore have saved those poor girls from someone who would never had been working as a school caretaker had they been in place before hand.

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  3. Sorry, Julie, I have to correct this common misapprehension. Holly and Jessica did not attend the school at which Ian Huntley was working. His girlfriend was a TA at their school and they tried to call on her. He would have been in a position to murder them whether he was a school caretaker or an shop assistant.

    Sources: http://www.soham.org.uk/hollyandjessica.htm,
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2003/nov/06/soham.childprotection

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  4. Yes, Shena - I agree that he wan't their caretaker, it is also true (although we can never "know") that he wouldn't have been in the area at all had he been CRBed when applying for the job as caretaker!!

    Of course hindsight is pretty useless, and even though he could have carried on his criminal attacks on girls and women had he remained in Grimsby, it seems probable that these particular girls would have lived had there been proper CRBs in place at the time.

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  5. 'He drew our attention to the case of Lianne Smith, who was a regional organiser for EO, involved in a local authority's Children's Services, married to a paedophile rapist and also killed her children. We were urged to 'open our eyes' and asked if we could see 'the bigger picture'.'

    No response yet from 'him'?

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  6. My eyes are wide open, by the way, but I haven't been a member of EO for years so have no idea what 'he' means by 'Open your eyes, Anon'.

    Still waiting for the explanation and evidence, if any.

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  7. teacher Julie says-and may therefore have saved those poor girls from someone who would never had been working as a school caretaker had they been in place before hand.

    The 2 poor girls trusted Ian Huntley because his girlfriend Maxine Carr worked as a helper at the school both girls where murdered in the house that Huntley shared with Carr! one of the girls i belive had sent Carr a card thanking her for helping her in class.

    Huntley may not have become a school caretaker but who knows? the information is not always shared and the Head of the school was under a lot of pressure to find a care taker!

    at the moment Huntley has applied for compenstion for injuries he has suffered at the hand of a fellow prisoner which it is belived he will get about £20.000

    Carr is now out of jail and is getting police protection along with life long anonymity cost belived will amount to over 1 million!

    the 2 family,s who girls where murdered by Huntley got £11.000 in compensation!

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