RE: sex offender at the gym
August 23, 2013 at 1:03 pm
(This post was last modified: August 23, 2013 at 1:04 pm by Cyberman.)
Yeah, rumours can destroy lives. Many years ago, a relative of mine served a nine-year sentence for child abuse despite the fact that not only did we know for certain he didn't do it, the individuals concerned later admitted they set him up so as to get compensation.
The salt in the wound was that one of the conditions of the compensation was that they undergo a course of therapy and they refused it, presumably because they thought they'd be shown to be lying. So the judge basically said that since their ordeal had no effect on them that required therapy, there was no grounds for compensation. They thought, like far too many people do, that they could simply make a complaint and just wait for the money to roll in without any consequence to themselves or need to substantiate their claims. So my relative did time, is on the offenders' register for life and can't even have access to a computer, and all for nothing.
In another similar case, I was shocked to read local newspaper reports a few years ago that a guy I used to go to school with had been charged with sex offences after rumours spread about him. The charges were soon dropped, but he still lost his job as a kids' martial arts trainer. The kick in the bollocks here - it wasn't even him that the rumours were about, but another guy who just happened to have the same name.
I don't think I want to live in a world like that.
The salt in the wound was that one of the conditions of the compensation was that they undergo a course of therapy and they refused it, presumably because they thought they'd be shown to be lying. So the judge basically said that since their ordeal had no effect on them that required therapy, there was no grounds for compensation. They thought, like far too many people do, that they could simply make a complaint and just wait for the money to roll in without any consequence to themselves or need to substantiate their claims. So my relative did time, is on the offenders' register for life and can't even have access to a computer, and all for nothing.
In another similar case, I was shocked to read local newspaper reports a few years ago that a guy I used to go to school with had been charged with sex offences after rumours spread about him. The charges were soon dropped, but he still lost his job as a kids' martial arts trainer. The kick in the bollocks here - it wasn't even him that the rumours were about, but another guy who just happened to have the same name.
I don't think I want to live in a world like that.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
