Sunday - November 16, 2014
is the only way still essex? police response to rape of five year old not encouraging
As do many of you here at bmews, I belong to an older generation. Hi tech in my world even before the first TV, was a washing machine that my Grandma did not have to wheel to the kitchen sink and hook up a hose for the water and drain at that point.
Radio was the major medium of entertainment back then, but by the time I was 12 or 13, TV was on the scene for a few hours a day.
I guess about the sexiest stuff young boys might have seen would have been in the movies of the day, and the Natl. Geographic, (YUK) and not sexy at all by the standards of today.
We did not have Playboy yet, porn was something some of us vaguely heard of without yet having seen it.
As things progressed the boys began to discover girls, and I would guess a good many girls wished we had not.
Now then .... Having discovered the female sex the next major hurdle was just how to attract one of these new and exotic creatures and if that was done, what to do next. Back then you’d be damn lucky to get a girl to say hello so lets not even discuss anything else of a most instinctive nature.
So here’s where I’m heading with this.
Rape!
Yes, I suppose in many places where some kids grew up lots faster and had different family examples, many matured early and even those who may not have still had a keen awareness of sex.
But in our part of town, in our school (1st thru 6th grade) I do not believe one single young girl was ever assaulted nor would any of our group been inclined to commit such an act. And if anything like that would have happened, there would not have been the tolerance shown today.
It might not have led the morning news unless death was a result, but there’d have been none of this oh well the boy was young (12).
Even in my day ...12 and up was no innocent boy. A juvenile? Sure thing. Innocent or too young to know better? No way.
Not long ago there was a TV show here, we haven’t a TV set and I doubt I’d have watched it. It’s a generational thing I believe.
Pretty much as I understand it, another sex driven program. I may be wrong but .... the girls I’d see advertised in the papers were. Somewhat sexy?
The program was .... and I believe it was also a slogan I never caught on to ....
The Only Way Is Essex.
Which is where this story originates. Doesn’t say a lot of good about the police there. But we must not be too harsh as after all, the standards that once might have been in place apparently no longer are.
btw .... I kind of doubt any young girl of 8 would be articulate enough for the letter the DM says she wrote at 8. And the penmanship looks too perfect.
The letter from a five-year-old rape victim that shames every police officer: Family’s agony as 12-year-old rapist is let off with caution and told: ‘Do it with someone your own age next time’
Couple’s five-year-old daughter raped by the 12-year-old son of neighbour
Told Essex police - what followed was catalogue of blunders and cover-ups
Three and a half years since the rape family are still waiting for justice
Family have spent £40,000 in legal fees and the culprit was only cautionedBy Mira Bar-hillel and Olga Craig for The Mail on Sunday
When Sara and Peter’s five-year-old daughter was raped by the 12-year-old son of a close friend, the couple were distraught. Not only had their youngest child’s innocence been shattered in the most unspeakable manner, but she had endured a horrendous physical and emotional trauma.
They immediately reported the assault to their local Essex police, in the belief that while they, as a family, would help their child come to terms with her ordeal, the force would pursue her attacker.
But the result was not the prompt conviction they expected. Instead – as documents seen by The Mail on Sunday make all too clear – they have been subjected to an extraordinary catalogue of blunders, cover-ups and betrayals by the officers they trusted to bring the culprit to justice.
It is three and a half years since the rape, and the family are still waiting.
In that time, Peter has been hounded through the courts, and the family have been forced to spend more than £40,000 in legal fees and lost countless thousands in earnings.
One senior officer admitted to the couple that the investigation of the case had been ‘piss poor’. Officers wrongly claimed that they had reported the case to the Crown Prosecution Service; omitted having the rapist’s name added to the Sex Offenders Register; neglected to take fingerprints, DNA samples or photographs; ignored opportunities to instigate a Section 47 child protection joint investigation with Social Care; and took limited disciplinary action against the officers involved.
And the culprit, who admitted the rape in a taped interview, escaped with nothing more than a youth caution, after being told by one police officer:
‘Do it with someone your own age next time.’‘All of those who should have protected our daughter at such a vulnerable age have let her down,’ says Sara. ‘These people should be held to account. How can we ever have confidence in the police again? They dealt leniently with the rapist yet relentlessly pursued us.
‘Our family’s lives have been on hold. I feel like someone pressed the pause button on our lives and has never pressed play again. And our daughter believes no one in authority ever listened to her. Or ever will again.’
Their daughter, now eight, was so distressed at how she was sidelined that she wrote a letter to each of the child abuse officers involved.
Part of that letter read: ‘When I was five something very bad happened and it was your job to make sure he was properly dealt with and punished. But you didn’t do your job and you let me down.
‘This makes me sad, upset and angry because I am only a little girl. I am very disapointed (sic) in you. I hope one day soon he gets what he deserves.’
She got no responses.
She had previously asked written questions of Derek Benson, Essex Police Deputy Chief Constable. While Mr Benson replied, apologising, his response did little to convince Peter and Sara they would ever achieve justice.
In a handwritten letter, on Essex Police notepaper – seen by the MoS – he wrote: ‘I am very sorry for the mistakes made by Essex Police when we looked in to finding out what had happened to you… I am really sorry that you have had such a horrible experience and I wish you the very best for the future.’
The courts have banned identifying anyone involved – including on social media websites. Sara and Peter’s names have been changed.
The little girl’s ordeal began in 2011. The parents were friendly with a couple who lived nearby in a small Essex town. The mothers had known each for years and spent time in each others homes; the couples occasionally dined out together.
ONE sunny August afternoon, as Sara explains it, she and her daughter went for lunch at the friend’s house. All the children were in and out, playing.
Unbeknown to Sara, her friend’s 12-year-old son beckoned her daughter upstairs into his bedroom. There he closed the door and curtains, subjected her to porn on his laptop, then raped her. The next day the little girl told her mum what happened.
‘As a parent, nothing can prepare you for the sheer devastation of a moment like that,’ Sara says. ‘She was very upset because the boy had told her this was a game of husbands and wives and was to be a special secret that she must never tell anyone.
The next day Peter contacted Essex Police Child Abuse Unit.
‘My first discussion was with a detective constable who was rude and unhelpful,’ says Peter.
‘But a sergeant intervened and we agreed my wife would provide a statement regarding our daughter’s disclosures.
‘Shortly after we returned home from giving the statement, the sergeant telephoned and explained that the boy had admitted everything during a voluntary interview so our little girl would not need to be interviewed and he said he would report the incident to Social Care.
‘We thought everything possible was being done. Eventually we found out that this sergeant had refused a strategy meeting with Social Care which would have kick-started a joint child protection investigation for our daughter. His failure to do that had catastrophic results.’
Six weeks later, in November 2011, Sara came home to find an answerphone message from Detective Constable Tracy Bainbridge from Essex Police’s Child Abuse Unit. ‘She casually stated that the boy who had admitted to raping our daughter had received a youth caution for the offence,’ Sara recalls. ‘We were absolutely horrified. Somehow, the case had concluded.
‘Our daughter had been suffering terribly. At that time we believed she would never recover. She couldn’t bear to have her bedroom door closed. She was terrified of seeing her abuser.’
By now Peter and Sara realised their daughter probably couldn’t continue living so close to her abuser. Peter went to the friend’s house to explain this. And so began another distressing chapter in their ordeal.
One senior Essex Police officer admitted to the couple that the investigation of the case had been ‘piss poor’One senior Essex Police officer admitted to the couple that the investigation of the case had been ‘piss poor’
Peter says that, though understandably upset, he intended to have a brief conversation which, he hoped, would help to clear the air. He told Essex police of his intention and invited them to send an officer. They declined.
‘I had a brief chat at the door with the boy’s father but he was extremely angry,’ he recalls.
The next day, to Peter’s astonishment, Essex Police contacted him as the friend had made a complaint. In February 2012, the couple received a letter from Essex Police warning them both over the alleged harassment of the rapist’s father.
Posted by peiper on 11/16/2014 at 09:48 AM
Filed Under: • Crime • Justice - LACK OF •
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