'Tell that to those whose lives were devastated!'
Fury at Boris Johnson after he claims the money spent on investigating historical sex abuse was 'spaffed up the wall'
Boris Johnson is Britain's former Foreign Secretary, who wants to become Theresa May's successor as Prime Minister.
A week ago, Boris Johnson has sparked fury by claiming millions of pounds of police funding is being 'spaffed up the wall' investigating allegations of historic abuse.
The former Cabinet minister and favourite to succeed Theresa May as Tory leader made the crude reference as he suggested 'an awful lot of police time' is being spent looking at 'historic offences and all this malarkey'.
See video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U_FSqfXyUFk
His comments sparked a storm of criticism on Twitter, with former CPS chief prosecutor Nazir Afzal tweeting: 'Boris Johnson thinks spending money on delivering justice to victims of child sexual abuse is wasted.
'Tell that to those whose lives were devastated by abusers. Tell that Frances Andrade who took her own life 30 yrs after the abuse she lived with every day.'
After being asked in an LBC interview whether police cuts had contributed to the problems on London's streets, he replied: 'Keeping numbers high on the streets is certainly important. But the question is where you spend the money and where you deploy the officers.
His comments sparked an angry reaction, with one critic describing them as an 'insult to every survivor of child sex abuse'.
Katie Russell, from Rape Crisis, said:
'Both the suggestion that investigating these devastating crimes is a waste of resources, and the highly inappropriate use of language, are deeply insensitive and offensive towards the hundreds of thousands of people impacted by sexual violence and abuse living in this country.'
Hundreds of thousands? More like millions. She should know.
Johnson's comments were made as the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, which was set up after Jimmy Savile was exposed as a serial paedophile, continues a three-week probe into allegations involving politicians.
According to The Guardian,
anti-Johnson feeling among [Tory] MPs appears to have risen in recent weeks, especially among female Tories incensed by his comments suggesting money on historic child sex abuse cases was being “spaffed up the wall”.
Johnson is the current favourite [as a successor to May] of Brexit-backing Tory activists.
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Factfinder2 ago
In a sense, Boris is right, although he's apparently not using my reasoning in his defense.
Many of the child sexual abusers the UK chooses to investigate are already dead. Yes, their victims should receive justice, BUT if resources are limited, the money should first be spent on putting away the ones who are on the loose NOW, exploiting and raping children every day.
think- ago
Question: Who do you think limits the resources? 60 millions is a ridiculously low amount of money.
Factfinder2 ago
Not sure what you're getting at with these questions.
Of course I think the money should be spent to investigate and convict ALL pedos, but with the govt. in effect protecting pedos by failing to allocate sufficient funds for that, I'd rather they prioritize investigation of current offenders instead of concentrating on dead dead ones and thus protecting those who are hurting kids now. That's all I'm saying. You disagree?
think- ago
Yes. I think that investigating old cases is very important. Only a couple of days ago, the Liberal Democrats had to suspend their former leader, since it turned out he knew about sexual abuse allegations, and didn't do anything.
The investigation of historic cases turned up incredible stories and are important for two reasons:
1) It is necessary, since survivors need to be vindicated, and will need it in order to be able to heal.
2) These investigations, flawed as they might be, have shown how widespread and common sexual abuse by members of the elite has been, and have contributed to a change of mind throughout society; survivors are now taken seriously, and believed.
It's a wicked game to first reduce the police manpower, and make the police focus on stuff like 'hate speech', and then claim 'oh we don't have enough manpower to investigate past sexual abuse cases'.
There is a reason why Johnson has voiced this. Remember the case of the former GCHQ spy agency head, who allgedly left his job for 'family reasons'? Boris Johnson was his boss at the time.
Well, two weeks ago the guy didn't leave for 'family reasons', but he was busted by a rival intelligence agency for supporting a pedophile priest in court. Johnson and May covered it up.
Factfinder2 ago
Agree completely.
Yes. As I said, his reasons aren't the same as my reasons.
think- ago
I got that. ;-)