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These Witch-hunts Are Not Doing Us Any Good

Added on November 11, 2008



Daily Telegraph by Alice Thomson 17 January 2003

When I saw the pink fluffy handcuffs on the front of the Guardian's second section yesterday, I thought they could only have been discussing terrorism or paedophilia: whether police should use handcuffs in asylum cases, or how sex offenders should be treated. Instead, it was an article on how Ann Summers has made sex shops respectable for the middle classes.

But it is terrorists and paedophiles that we're all obsessed with at the moment. Both are making our lives miserable. Their perceived threat does as much damage as their perverted actions.

The idea that we could all be attacked by ricin in a syringe, sarin on the Underground or anthrax through the post, and that our policemen are now being stabbed to death, makes everyone edgy and angry.

It's the same with child molesters. With a new suspected "paedophile" uncovered every day by the police - whether acting as Captain Hook in Peter Pan, working as a Catholic priest or fading as a rock musician - parents are increasingly terrified of giving their children any freedom. One council tried to ban the filming of school Nativity plays, and children aren't any longer allowed to walk home from classes - it's considered safer to let them become obese.

In many ways, suspected terrorists and paedophiles are similar. Both are taking up huge amounts of police time. Twelve police officers went to arrest the rock musician Pete Townshend, on suspicion of possessing, making and inciting the distribution of indecent images of children; 24 went to investigate the asylum seekers in Manchester now suspected of involvement in the ricin terrorist plot.

Terrorists' and paedophiles' actions are also tarring whole communities. One asylum seeker stabs a policeman, and every foreigner attempting to enter the country becomes a suspect. Every Muslim is made to feel defensive. The Algerian community has to endure headlines such as the Evening Standard's "Algerian zealots who take pleasure in slitting the throats of infidels".

It's the same with paedophiles. We are told that more than 7,000 British men are on the list of individuals who have accessed child pornography sites on the internet. The policemen in the inquiry have promised that judges, teachers, civil servants, doctors and clergymen are involved. Police say they are also investigating dozens of showbusiness stars, a peer and two DJs after the arrest of the Stars in their Eyes host, Matthew Kelly, on suspicion of sex abuse carried out 30 years ago.

In other words, any male (women rarely sexually abuse children), in any walk of life, could be a threat. MPs in Westminster are all playing guessing games as to which of their number is perverted, as are the judiciary and the entertainment world. It has become a horrible witch-hunt.

Scout masters are getting a bad name, although many are selfless, decent volunteers. All Catholic priests are now treated with suspicion. Any single man who wants to coach children at sport is suspect. Male primary school teachers aren't allowed to pick up hurt children in the playground and hug them.

There are differences. I have a little sympathy for paedophiles. They are not all inhuman Hannibal Lecters - they are usually sad, warped, pathetic men who may have been abused themselves. The majority never touch a child, but cruise the internet.

They need help. Experts now agree that paedophilia is a sexual orientation, like heterosexuality or homosexuality. Extensive research by J K Marques and his colleagues, published in the journal Criminal Justice and Behaviour, indicates that a man who is sexually excited by children always will be. It cannot be trained out of a person, but it can be managed.

I have even more sympathy for the men condemned before they've even been convicted. Men like Pete Townshend have been vilified by the press before anything has been proved. Even when they're found to be innocent, the suggestion that they may have been tempted to look at images of child porn ruins their lives forever, and their acquittal is unlikely to be reported on anything like the same scale in the tabloids. Terrorists, by contrast, are often rehabilitated even if they've blown up little children.

I feel nothing but contempt for terrorists. They are not destined to become murderers; they make a cold-blooded decision. They often prefer to attack innocent civilians in the pursuit of political or religious ends. Their smug self-justification over the bodies of dead children is worse than a paedophile surfer saying he was just using the net for "research".

But the way paedophiles and terrorists should be treated is similar. First, there should be harsh reprisals for convicted terrorists and paedophiles. That already happens, you say, but terrorists are easily glamorised, particularly by Hollywood.

Paedophiles, with the exception of Humbert in Nabokov's Lolita, have a tougher time. But adult porn is seen as acceptable and even cool. Richard Desmond's publication Asian Babes is accepted by the Blairs, who happily entertain the publisher of pornography. In the same issue that Rebekah Wade, then editor of the News of the World, began publishing the names of 110,000 people who had been convicted of sex offences against children, however minor, she ran a picture of a topless 16-year-old girl.

Secondly, the police cannot be expected to cope with terrorists and paedophiles on their own. They need help from the communities that often harbour them. With terrorism, it is important that Muslim religious leaders insist that the Koran should not be interpreted in a way that justifies terrorism and that they will not harbour fanatics.

With paedophiles, the international internet fraternity could do a lot to clean up its act. The Catholic Church should help in every way to apprehend any priest who has abused his position towards children. But if we hound whole communities for the actions of a few, we will drive paedophiles underground, making them more dangerous, and persuade more young immigrants to admire the terrorists.

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