Worse than Savile?

The seemingly- never ending Yewtree investigation arouses two conflicting emotions.

 

The first is revulsion at the thought of grown men forcing themselves on immature school-girls.

 

The second is disquiet at what could be turning into a witch-hunt. There is a feeling that it is about vengeance as much as justice, that it is morphing into punishing the monstrous Savile by proxy. It is nearly two years since the scandal broke, the police have made more than a dozen arrests, and yet they have only secured one conviction in all that time.

 

This was a guilty plea.  It will be instructive to learn how the CPS will get a result in a defended case. It will be difficult to obtain corroborative evidence. There will be no forensics.

 

When are charges to be brought against the other suspects, or dropped? Why did the police release the identities of the suspects before they had sufficient evidence to bring charges?

 

Some of the cases are nearly 50 years old, but they continue to be pursued.

 

And yet the authorities have decided not to pursue the accusations of  massive corruption levelled at BAe Systems over Saudi arms deals which continued into the mid-90’s,  on the apparent grounds that the evidence is too stale.

 

But there are two crimes against women that surely are more disgusting that molesting young girls, which, compared with the post-Savile hullaballoo, get very little attention from the media or public concern. Perhaps it’s because they only affect certain ethnic minorities.

 

The first is forced marriage, which is particularly prevalent at this time of year.

 

The second, and by far the worst, is female circumcision, or female genital mutilation, which is even more prevalent throughout the whole year.

 

Forced marriage is rape by other means.

 

Imagine the situation. A bright 15 year-old girl with a promising future, Bradford born and bred and Yorkshire through and through, is excited because her parents are taking her to Pakistan for her school holidays. But as soon as she arrives she is forced into the bed of a total stranger to become a brood mare and, possibly, a fast-track means to a British residency for yet another Punjabi peasant.

 

It is estimated that there may be as many as 8,000 existing cases in the UK right now and that there are 1,500 new ones every year. The summer holidays are the danger time; it is said that 5 girls are taken out of Britain every day.

 

Only now is it being criminalised.

 

Female genital mutilation is especially loathsome. At its extreme it involves cutting away the entire female genitalia. It is estimated that there are around 23,000 girls at risk in the UK every year. The NHS treats 70 cases per month. The procedure is carried out with a knife or scissors; no anaesthetic, of course, accompanied by excruciating agony and a high risk of haemorrhage and infection.

 

It has been a crime for 29 years.

 

How many convictions in that time?

 

None!