Bill Roache
Why is Bill Roache being announced as being a potential rapist, who raped a girl 40+ years ago? Why is Rolf Harris named as a man being questioned for incidences that may have happened 50+ years ago? Recently David Cameron apologised to people who were said to have had bad things happened to them 60+ years ago. And, finally 400+ years ago William Shakespeare was part of a great conspiracy to falsify the author of plays he was supposed to have written.
The thing about these allegations is that they are very subjective and personal . There are usually no witnesses and over time usually no physical evidence in the form of DNA. The shame of being raped is massive but also the shame of being the rapist is bad. People accused of rape should be given anonymity just in case they are innocent. Since the law of double jeopardy is no longer allowed this does make catching criminals easier.
My arguments also apply to the argument that William Shakespeare could not have written his stuff because he came from the wrong class! I may have written about this before and will probably write about it again as the class hatred is still strong and ubiquitous within UK society. It is sad but it is so strong and so anonymous. If these people have solid evidence why have they not produced it? Simply they have no evidence just prejudice based on centuries of keeping the lower classes down.
The thing about the UK we love the class system. In a way it was the class system which is being investigating the alleged sex abuse carried out by Jimmy Savile. Jimmy Savile was big mates with Mrs Thatcher, so was Bill Roache and Rolf Harris. They all come from a certain class and it is Operation Yewtree (the investigation into Jimmy Savile’s sex allegations) which has thrown up these cases.
The big sex scandal which featured a care home in Wales and was on the radar years ago has only been acted on recently even though there were allegations that it involved some serious upper class power brokers. For the last 30 odd years there have been continuous claims of abuse and it is only recently that the authorities have taken it seriously with Operation Pallial.
Operation Pallial has published phase one of their report and came up with astonishing figures that between 1963 and 1992 there is 140 allegations of abuse on boys and girls aged between 7 and 19! If this goes to court and they will, they still should receive anonymity.