Glitter factor..

Its not often that this blog comments on a national news story but the furore around the forced return to britain of the disgraced former pop star Gary Glitter (aka Paul Gadd known to some as the gadfly) deserves some comment.

Glitter is a totally repulsive creature who probably got less then his just deserts when he was sentenced to three years inprisonment in Vietnam. It may well say something about the growing westernisation of that country that Glitter was not put in front of a firing squad as he probably would have been when that country was going through its more revolutionary phase. One can only praise the efforts of poor countries determined to stop the sexual exploitation of children by those with economic clout by whatever means they deem necessary. Perhaps, however Glitter may well come to wish that he had met his end overseas as its almost certain that he is never going to be allowed to leave Britain again and will be subject to media harassment and public scorn everywhere he goes for as long as he lives.

That being said however, the plain fact is that the main danger to children in terms of child sexual abuse comes not from high profile abusers like Glitter, or murderous psychopaths like Robert Black or Ian Huntley, but from the often hidden, but often more damaging, in terms of its long term effects, abuse that still goes on hidden from public view in otherwise outwardly respectable families. At least we now live in a society better able to recognise the scourge of child sexual abuse and its possible effects, but I am sure that all of us who grew up in earlier and less enlightened times can think of people that we met in our youth whose behaviour could have been an indication that they were victims. Even in a place like Silverton there is little doubt that we have victims amongst us who remain silent about their suffering and whose abusers will never have to face the unrelenting future of public hostility and disgust that faces Gary Glitter.