New Labour’s appetite for trial by media and summary justice for “thought criminals” continues unabated.
In an unprecedented move, Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary, has called upon police to restrict the movements of Gary Glitter — recently deported from Thailand after serving three years for sexually abusing two young girls — as “he shouldn’t be travelling anywhere in the world.”
This is a terrible affront to justice and all right-thinking people should be appalled by this populist call to pitchforks.
Although found guilty of a terrible crime, Glitter has served his sentence and is now a free man. He should be allowed to get on with his life without politicians conducting a trial by media for the thought crime of “temptation to commit sexual abuse”.
Smith’s comments and the media’s coverage of the deportation compounds a growing image proffered by politicians and the media of “bogeyman” sexual abuse. The uneasy fact is that 4% of children in our country are sexually abused by a relative by the time they are 16. Similarly, 11% of children are sexually abused by non-relatives who are known to them. What’s so sad is those abusers (and they vote too) often don’t realise that they too are the “paedos” they revile so much when reading their copies of the Mail and the Sun: they welcome Smith hanging the likes of Glitter out to dry.
Jacqui Smith, New Labour and the media that put them in power need to start acting more responsibly. The reporting needs to be toned down and made more balanced and less sensationalist; people need to understand the realities of child abuse and that much of it is happening right under their noses in the home. Most of all, the government needs to leave the police and the courts to get on with their jobs and free people to get on with their lives.
Here’s the Telegraph’s story on Smith’s comments.
And here’s my reference for the abuse statistics I mention above.
