Baroness Newlove, the victim’s commissioner, is a Conservative peer. A piece by Fiona Hamilton, Crime Editor, in today’s Times (emphases ours). I’ve added “(alleged)” where appropriate in the piece, because journalists always write of alleged victims as “victims”, thereby perpetuating the lie that alleged perpetrators are always guilty. Very often they are the true victims of the police investigations and subsequent legal actions.

The victims’ commissioner has accused senior police officers of taking a retrograde step over plans to abandon the national policy to believe alleged sexual abuse victims automatically.

Baroness Newlove said that (alleged) victims of rape and sexual assault would be less likely to come forward if chief constables overturned the instruction to detectives to believe claims from the outset.

Lady Newlove, 56, who was appointed victims’ commissioner in 2012, said that a history of not being believed by police and poor treatment of (alleged) rape victims had previously deterred them from reporting attacks.

She said: “Lately our criminal justice system has taken great strides in building confidence with (alleged) victims, resulting in more being prepared to report the (alleged) crimes committed against them. This is in part because of the change in the police approach to (alleged) victims. These proposed changes would be a retrograde step for (alleged) victims and justice.” [J4MB: A retrograde step, unless you consider men as worthy of justice as women.]

Most chief constables, including Cressida Dick, the Metropolitan Police commissioner, and Sara Thornton, chairwoman of the National Police Chiefs’ Council (NPCC), agreed this year that the “belief” instruction should be removed from national guidance and replaced with “the intention is that victims can be confident they will be listened to”.

The NPCC agreed to carry out further consultation before the College Of Policing decides whether to change the policy, which was put in place in 2011 after revelations that police had failed properly to investigate allegations of abuse, including by (alleged) victims of the former BBC presenter Jimmy Savile, who was posthumously declared Britain’s most prolific paedophile.

However, there have been concerns that automatic belief was a factor in prominent abuse investigations in which the police were accused of ignoring evidence that cast doubt on the complainants’ story.

In particular Scotland Yard was criticised after detectives placed their faith in a man known as Nick, declaring that his uncorroborated claims of a Westminster abuse ring were “credible and true”. Nick has been accused of inventing the claims and charged with perverting the course of justice. Sir Richard Henriques, a retired judge who examined the Operation Midland inquiry, said the “automatic belief” policy warped officers’ judgment.

However, victims’ advocates [J4MB: Feminists with no interest in justice for men] are alarmed by the prospect of overturning the policy. Lady Newlove, who has campaigned on (alleged) victims’ behalf since her husband, Gary, was murdered in 2007, said: “These changes would be a retrograde step for (alleged) victims and for justice. The change appears to be based upon a view that with sex offences, police officers are unable to take a robust and impartial investigation if they offer a (alleged) victim belief that their allegations are true. If this is the case, I would argue that a diminution of (alleged) victim support is not the solution. Instead, I would suggest that it is an operational matter that needs to be addressed through training and guidance.”

Fiona Ellis, of the support group Survivors in Transition said: “Belief is the cornerstone of validation for (alleged) victims and survivors. If that belief is there, they engage better and longer in the [criminal justice] process.”

Behind the story
The issue of automatically believing sexual abuse complainants has become a particularly vexed one in which chief constables are fiercely divided. Advocates of the status quo, such as Chief Constable Simon Bailey, the National Police Chiefs’ Council spokesman for child protection, argue that belief is the appropriate starting point which will give victims the confidence to come forward before a full investigation ensues.

Others are alarmed that it has resulted in a blinkered mindset in some detectives and that some investigations are not being conducted in an impartial way. They say officers should approach every investigation with an open mind and it is enough for them to show empathy to the complainant before conducting a rigorous inquiry.

Some (alleged) victims’ groups are staunchly opposed to overturning belief; others just want the police to reassure (alleged) victims, treat them with sensitivity and understanding, and go on to properly investigate.

Inconsistency creates confusion and with it an environment in which (alleged) victim confidence is likely to suffer.

The belief policy has been debated for the best part of two years, a significant chunk of the total time in which it has been in place. It is time for a final decision to be made.

Janet Bloomfield’s 2015 article “13 reasons women lie about being raped” is here.

You can subscribe to The Times here.

Our thanks to Mike P for this. The start of the piece:

University Challenge is to introduce “gender neutral” questions following complaints from viewers, it has emerged.

The quiz show’s executive producer has said that ideally, questions should be framed in such a way that it is not possible to tell whether they were written by a man or a woman.

Peter Gwyn said he hope this will encourage more female contestants to take part in the show, which has come under fire for its gender imbalance.

“Perhaps ‘gender-neutrality’ is what we aim for,” Mr Gwyn said. “We try to ensure that when hearing a question, we don’t have any sense of whether it was written by a man or a woman, just as questions should never sound as if they are directed more at men than women.

“We believe very strongly that the more representative, inclusive and diverse we can make the programme, the better and more interesting it will be.” [J4MB: You can but hope something in Peter Gwyn died when he said this.]

Mr Gwyn told how the move came after a viewer wrote in to complain about how few questions were about women. “We agreed and decided to rectify it,” he told Radio Times.

“And we will always do everything we can to encourage more women to take part as contestants.” [J4MB: Why do women have to be encouraged all the time? What’s wrong with them?] He said that gender parity is one of many balances that question writers aim to achieve when writing questions, along side ensuring the right mixture of arts and sciences or contemporary and historical themes.

Earlier this year, Thomas Benson, the quiz show’s questions editor, said that there has been an effort to equalise the gender imbalance in the quiz.

University Challenge has been broadcast since 1962 – 56 years ago. And all it took was one (alleged) viewer writing in to complain about “how few questions were about women”. That’s the power of female whining for you, as exemplified by women such as Laura Bates (Special Snowflake) and Caroline Criado Perez. The BBC – universally challenged.

Our thanks to Sean for this:

A man sends a text to his next-door neighbour:

“Bob, I’m sorry. I’ve been riddled with guilt, and I have to confess. I have been helping myself to your wife when you’re not around, probably more than you. I know it’s no excuse but I don’t get it at home. I can’t live with the guilt any longer. I hope you’ll accept my sincere apology. It won’t happen again.”

Feeling outraged and betrayed, Bob grabs his gun, goes into the bedroom, and without a word, shoots his wife dead. Moments later he gets a second text from his neighbour:

“Really should use spell check! That should be ‘wifi’ “

BBC caption: Construction sites are typically male-dominated areas

Our thanks to a number of people for this BBC piece. The end of it:

Ms Loeckx said men were more likely to suffer discrimination in shops, beauty parlours and kindergartens.

With women, discrimination came more often from transport firms, butchers, builders and taxi businesses.

The IEFH’s annual report (in French) says another issue it handled was “ladies only” events staged by two cinema chains. Men who wanted to go with their female partners to the events were refused entry.

After a complaint from the IEFH the cinemas agreed to admit men, but kept the label “ladies only”, arguing that the promotions were an example of positive discrimination.

Enjoy.

A piece by Katie Glass in today’s Sunday Times:

A 17-year-old actor goes to a hotel room to meet an older, more powerful Hollywood figure and leaves claiming to have been sexually assaulted. It’s a story we’ve heard often since the #MeToo campaign began. Except, unusually, in this case the alleged victim is a man and the accused a woman. What is worrying is how differently this story has been received, even by some of the strongest proponents of the #MeToo movement.

News broke last week that the actress Asia Argento, a figurehead of #MeToo, paid the former child-actor Jimmy Bennett $380,000 (£296,000) in hush-money after he claimed she assaulted him in a California hotel in 2013. He was 17, she 37.

Rose McGowan, a vocal #MeToo campaigner, who like Argento claims to have been assaulted by Harvey Weinstein, quickly tweeted: “None of us know the truth of the situation and I’m sure more will be revealed. Be gentle.”

How different this was from when McGowan implored people to “believe survivors”. Or, more specially, “believe women”. But, as so often with calls to support female victims, the same compassion is not extended to men.

Incredulous commentators have poured scorn on his claims that he met Argento — who had played his on-screen mother — in a hotel room. There, he says, she gave him alcohol, pushed him onto the bed and performed a sexual act on him before they had full sex.

Argento’s response has been equally dismissive. Text messages have emerged in which she describes Bennett as a “horny kid”, while she questions the age of consent. Bennett was underage at the time, the age of consent in California being 18. “15 in France and Italy,” Argento considers casually in the texts.

This is the same Argento who described “the little girl that I was when I was 21” when Weinstein allegedly assaulted her in a hotel room in Cannes. In that account, Argento implored us to be sensitive to the complexity of sexual abuse, describing how she “felt responsible” because she stopped fighting Weinstein off; how they stayed in touch, he bought her gifts and they later had consensual sex because she believed otherwise he’d ruin her career.

Argento asks us to understand the grey areas that complicate abuse. Yet in her consideration of Bennett such nuance is lost. As a man, he is painted in black-and-white terms: a “horny kid” and “a failed child actor” who “jumped” her and is attempting a “shakedown”.

Argento fails to mention how she sent Bennett an engraved bracelet after their encounter. Or how she uploaded a picture of them together, promising “Jimmy is going to be in my next movie”.

In a statement, Bennett says he worried about the stigma of being a male victim of sexual assault but also: “I didn’t think that people would understand the event that took place from the eyes of a teenage boy.” It seems he is right.

A report last week into the death of the British solicitor David Edwards, stabbed through the heart by his wife, concluded the perception that men cannot be victims of domestic abuse may have contributed to his death. So, too, the perception that men cannot be pressured into sex makes it harder for them to share their experiences.

Bennett’s accusations do not undermine Argento’s claims against Weinstein. However, they do suggest #MeToo should not be a battle over gender but a takedown of all abuses of power. Bennett’s story is not a chance to undermine female victims. It’s a reminder that #MeToo must include #MenToo in its concerns.

@katieglassST

You can subscribe to The Times here.

A piece in today’s Sunday Times by Jason Allardyce and John Boothman, emphases ours:

Alex Salmond, the former Scottish first minister and leader of the Scottish National Party (SNP), has been accused of ordering a female staff member into his bed before touching her breasts and bottom, only stopping after she repeatedly asked him to.

The details of the allegation from one of two female civil servants who have accused Salmond of harassment is the latest turn in a remarkable series of events. The 63-year-old is preparing to take the government that he once led to court for its handling of the complaints against him.

The Scottish government has referred the allegations to police. Salmond has said he is “no saint” but strongly denies harassing anyone or engaging in criminality.

The Glasgow-based Daily Record reported yesterday that one of the women whose complaints triggered one of the biggest crises in the SNP’s history alleges multiple incidents of harassment and conduct of an unwanted sexual nature during Salmond’s time in office.

You can subscribe to The Times here.

Awesome (video, 1:48:37). Not for the first time, I’m inclined to think Australia might be the country where the Men’s Rights Movement starts to successfully challenge the global feminist cultural narrative.

At the end of last month we posted a link to a lengthy (130 minutes) but remarkable piece on YouTube by Eric Clopper, a young American Jewish academic at Harvard University – Sex & Circumcision: An America Love Story. It was published 1 May, 2018, Clopper was fired by Harvard shortly afterwards.

Our thanks to Rod for pointing us to an interesting new piece (video, 12:38) by Clopper, in a small part of which he promotes Brendon Marotta’s film American Circumcision, which got a great reception at the recent London conference.

A piece by David Brown in today’s Times, emphases ours:

The story of what happened to Lyn Fisk after she moved to the Devon village of Ashreigney following the death of her husband could have been lifted from the script of The Archers.

The newcomer, whose late husband had been an RAF pilot, received a warm welcome when she moved to the community, which has a population of just 446. Her new neighbours rallied round to help her build a luxury home set within 30 acres of pasture and woodland, including a wildlife haven and river frontage.

But in a twist that would have enthralled listeners to BBC Radio 4’s rural drama, her new life turned sour when she fell out with a local farmer who claimed that they had become lovers.

The widow made a 999 call to the police falsely claiming that Andrew Thorne had threatened to kill her when he confronted her while armed with a shotgun, Exeter crown court was told.

You can subscribe to The Times here.