Pride of Britain Award at the Manchester Kimpton Hotel with “Special Recognition”

It is now 4 days since the awards, and I am still reeling from the presentation to me of a Special Recognition Award at the Pride of Manchester/Britain Awards on Wednesday night at the Kimpton Hotel, Manchester in the company of many celebrities including the TV Presenter host Kim Marsh, together with Christine McGuiness (ex-wife
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Home Office delay responding to IICSA Report

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) published its report on 22nd October 2022. The Report was comprehensive and insisted upon a response from government within 6 months ie before 22nd April 2023. With 2 days to go before the deadline, the Home Office have stated that they will not be able to reply
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Is Sexual Exploitation Racist?

Rishi Sunak, and Suella Braverman have been very vocal recently about grooming gangs, saying that we have to crack down harder upon them. Yvette Cooper, Shadow Home Secretary, has been complaining that the Tory Government has not done enough to deal properly with the sexual exploitation of young teenagers. It is somewhat ironical that 2
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Refurbish, Rename, and Relaunch

Firstly can I apologise for the abuse survivor site being down for a couple of months, but sometimes a spring clean is in order. I have rewritten most of the site to bring it up to date, and provide you with a much needed refurbishment and refresh. I hesitated when to choose as my relaunch
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How have Police Priorities changed on child abuse since 2015?

This is a rehash of a post that I wrote in 2015 about a complaint by three politicians, Boris Johnson, Nigel Lawson, and Edwina Currie, that the police were spending too much money on historic child abuse and not enough to keep the public safe from terrorism. Note carefully which political party they come from.
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Why is Scotland ahead of England in child abuse and care?

On the Jeremy Vine Radio 2 show this week was a discussion about the recent apology given by First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon to all the mothers and children who were separated, forcibly in some cases, shortly after birth, and given up for adoption, because the child had been born out of wedlock. It
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Is anonymity something solely reserved to Victims?

Curious as I am, I thought I would look up the latest arguments on anonymity, and re-consider my views on the subject. It is an argument advanced by those accused of sex offences against children. The alleged falsely accused think it is unfair that the victim of abuse should have anonymity whereas the alleged perpetrator
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Child Sexual Abuse – what makes it happen?

The Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse (IICSA) demonstrates the scope of child sex abuse in the past, but how does it begin? The IICSA has examined not only what happened but also how it happened. Peter Garsden, a Manchester-based abuse solicitor, discusses what grooming is and what to do if you feel a child
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Jimmy Savile Netflix Documentary – what do I think?

Because I am a child abuse lawyer, watching films about abuse is like a Busman’s Holiday, and I generally don’t do it. The release of Gary Glitter from custody started me thinking about Savile, so I watched the Netflix 2 part documentary the other night, and what a revelation it was. If you have not
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Should Gary Glitter be released half way through his sentence?

8 years ago, Paul Gadd, whose stage name is Gary Glitter was given a 16 year prison sentence for abusing 3 girls. Under legislation at the time of the sentence in 2015 (The Criminal Justice Act 2003) certain prisoners have to be released once they have served half of their sentence. At one time Gadd
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