The Rights Of Man

FAMILY COURTS - NOTHING CHANGED IN 2009

The issue of the continuing injustice and anti-father bias of the family courts will have been on the minds of many this Christmas as hundreds of thousands of men will have had limited or no access to their children over the period.

The story continues to play out in some parts of the media and Sir Bob Geldof has continued to play his heroic role during 2009.

The Custody Minefield organisation's Relocation campaign (with Sir Bob's foreword) highlights the problem clearly where the courts do not have the interests of the children at heart (they need both parents involved in their lives) and are more interested in ensuring that men are banished and refuse to enforce contact orders.

The issue is covered in two articles where Sir Bob accuses the family courts as 'state sponsored kidnappers' (Telegraph, Daily Mail). Some further sage comments in The Telegraph and certainly in the comments section on the Telegraph debate. An example of what happens can be found here and here.

An Early Day Motion by David McClean MP sets out the issue and Sir Mark Potter 'El Presidente' of the Family Courts Division sets out his "you're all wrong" response here. John Hemming MP has also laid down an Early Day Motion over further secrecy concerns in the proposed Children, Schools and Families Bill.

With the much trumpeted and failed attempt to open up the courts, 2009 has meant a further tragic year of misery for many fathers and the children who want to see and be with their children. We can only hope that in 2010 it will change though it will need a change in Government to make it happen.

SIGN THE SCOTTISH PARLIAMENT DOMESTIC ABUSE PETITION CALLING FOR EQUAL TREATMENT FOR SCOTTISH MEN

Two Scottish women, Alison Waugh and Jackie Walls, have put down a petition in the Scottish Parliament calling for:-

 "Scottish Government to ensure that all publicly funded action (campaigns, publications, action plans, projects, training programmes, etc.) on domestic abuse/violence are overhauled to fully acknowledge the extent to which men are at the receiving end and to address the needs of male victims and their children."

Please sign and please send to anyone you know from Scotland to sign.

This is crucial given the fact that the Scottish Government's latest figures show a clear need for support for male victims of domestic abuse and domestic violence in Scotland

In addition, there is also a new web-site called Men in Scotland on the issue.

DOES JUDGE ESMOND FAULKS THINK HUSBAND BEATERS SHOULD BE PARADED IN THE STREETS?

Judge Esmond Faulks believes that wife-beaters should be paraded in the streets and pelted with rotten vegetables. Not much argument there.

However, it is hard to imagine him saying the same if he was convicted a wife of beating her husband.

The comments in the Daily Mail article make the point.

FALSE RAPE ACCUSATIONS IN SCOTLAND

I know the theme of the site has recently had a Scottish flavour but news is news wherever the source.

One of the key trends in 2009 has been what I can say is an epidemic of false rape accusations.

In Scotland, this poor poor chap spent 2 and a half years behind bars for the crime but has now been freed and then in Moray this lady gets community service.

SCOTLAND AND NORTHERN IRELAND SHOW INCREASE IN MALE VICTIMS OF DOMESTIC ABUSE

With the media and politics continuing to be very London/England-centric, it is important to remember that Scotland, Northern Ireland and sometimes Wales produce their own independent figures.

Figures over the past few months on domestic abuse in Northern Ireland and Scotland show that there is continuing to be an increase in male victims of domestic abuse. In Northern Ireland there is at least the Men's Advisory Project supported by funding from the Government and others but in Scotland the Government refuses to provide such help. 

Below is a summary of the figures from both Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Scotland

Partner Abuse

The Scottish Government's Partner Abuse survey showed that 5% of both men and women had suffered partner abuse in 2008/09 (page 1).

Since the age of 16, 21% of women said they had been a victim compared to 15% of men. Therefore 42% of victims in Scotland are male (page 10)

73% of women and 71% of men had suffered physical abuse since the age of 16 (page 14).

40% of men had not, as opposed to 21% women (page 2), reported the partner abuse they were suffering. This confirms that men are twice as likely to under-report the partner abuse they are suffering from than women.

35% of women had made the police aware of the latest incident as opposed to 8% of men (page 3)

Domestic Abuse Incidents

Last year, this site reported the growing incidence of domestic abuse against men in Scotland and how shameful it was that the Scottish Government was continually to turn a blind eye to the problem. This was because they offered no specialist services to male victims and had no intention of doing so, instead they just recognise female victims.

Incident figures (report and press release) for 2008/09 show an 8% increase in domestic abuse across the board (53,000 reported incidents).

For men:-

14% of all domestic abuse incidents are carried out on men, a 75% increase from the 8% figure reported in 2000/01 (see page 5)

There are now 2 and a half times the number of incidents against male victims then there was at the beginning of the decade. An increase from 2,873 in 2000/01 to 7,908 on 2008/09 (page 14). In addition, the number of incidents in 2007/08 was 6,753 so there has been a large increase over the year.

25-30 year old men were more likely to be a victim than any other male age group (page 6 and page 20). This certainly reflects the continuing increase in violent young women, many of whom will be taking their abusive behaviour home to their husband or boyfriend.

Female are more likely to perpetrate domestic abuse against another women than a man on another man (page 15)

Of course, the 14% figure is still far too low as these figures are based on reported incidents and do not take into account the severity of an incident nor the fact that so few men come forward. The level of under-reporting by male victims is greater than that of female victims. Not just because of the issues of pride and shame but also because the Scottish Government refuses to run any publicity campaigns encouraging male victims to come forward. The figures collated by the ManKind Initiative from the anonymous British Crime Survey give a more accurate picture where the figure is c40% as does the partner abuse survey outlined above.

Stalking

The Scottish Government also produced figures on stalking which showed that 6% of women and men were victims of stalking in 2008/09 (page 1).

Whilst females reporting sexual assault said that 96% of the perpetrators were male, those men who said they were sexually assaulted said that 48% of the perpetrators were male but 40% were female. A concept only recently emerging into the public spotlight.

Northern Ireland

The police in Northern Ireland also reported the gender breakdown of victims within their country.

The figures (table 2.4) showed that in 2008/09 there were 1,834 reported male victims (1,773 in 2007/08) and 5,436 (5,621) female victims. This shows an increase of 3% in male victims and a 3% fall in female victims. 

 

THE POWER OF THE FALSE ACCUSATION AGAIN

The Daily Mail reported recently this sad tale of Lancastrian Bryan Davies who had a heart attack because he was falsely accused of paedophilia. Even the police went to the trouble of sending leaflets to neighbours to say it was not true.

Once again, the power of the false allegation has reared its ugly head and during 2009 it is one trendthat is clearly increasing. These claims are made whether paedophilia and rape, damaging those falsely accused and also damaging those who are genuine victims.

There needs to be tougher sentences and someone such as the Fawcett Society (if they wanted to make a real difference to those poor women who are raped) and others should be speaking out publicly about it. Silence is all we hear.

INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY EXPOSE FEMALE PAEDOPHILIA SITES

This article from a few weeks is startling and proves once again that the stereotype of a child abuser should not be one where just a man is portrayed.

EQUALITIES COMMISSION HAS NO SHAME IN LOBBYING GOVERNMENT ON 'EQUALITIES' BILL

Looking back in a few years time when people question why men have been marginalised in the workforce, then they would be best to look at the who was pushing the Equalities Bill (still wending its way through Parliament) and why they were doing it.

The Equalities and Human Rights Commission, a public sector body paid wholly by us taxpayers, has been putting its full weight behind the Bill. This page shows how deep and often their lobbying has been. Rather than let the Government and others do its bidding and arguing, it unashamedly uses taxpayers money to lobby the Government when it is already part of the Government.

As set out before, this Bill is the most dangerous Act of Parliament ever passed because it simply will be used either covertly or overtly to discriminate against men. It is the intention behind the BIll.

Editors Note- The Daily Telegraph reports that Bill will only affect a few companies regarding the gender pay gap. In the long run though, once the inch has been taken the mile seems a whole lot nearer.

Hattip: Groan

WORLD FIRST: GUARDIAN ARTICLE ATTACKS WOMEN WHO CHOOSE TO HAVE CHILDREN WITH NO FATHER

It is not often this site has said it but there was a great post on The Guardian site this weekend (from Veronica Lee) stating that "Depriving children of a father is selfish."

FEMALE PERPETRATORS OF DOMESTIC VIOLENCE ARE NOT TREATED THE SAME AS MALE PERPETRATORS AS PATHETIC SENTENCING THIS WEEK SHOWS

Three stories this week have shown the sexist hypocrisy of the Government and other organisations (Equalities & Human Rights Commission, Fawcett Society et al) who deny there are significant numbers of male victims of domestic violence to be bothered doing anything to practically help or ensure they accept that victims are from both genders are supported. Never more so was this highlighted by the recent announcements on a strategy to End Violence Against Women and Girls, but not against men and boys. That's OK.

These issues also highlight the pathetic sentencing of women for cruel acts of domestic violence against men when if it was men carrying out the violence they rightly would have been sentenced for a lot longer. An issue raised on this site many a time.

The reason why this is important is that this week we have seen stories on:-

Thomas Cresswell's family receiving an apology from Jack Straw about the leniency showed to his killer Jane Andrews where she was allowed to be in an open prison such a short time (eight years) of a life sentence.

Terry Smith's attacker Alison Newman was sentenced to a sickenly bad two years (one in prison, one with a tag) for butchering him with a knife for five and a half hours. The judge states that she suffered from battered wife's syndrome (of which he denies) so was lenient but there is no evidence here that this was the case. Certainly nothing to say Terry Smith had been charged with it or been spoken to by the police. Look like the female judge took it at face value (coverage in Shields Gazette and Sunday Sun) and of course, will be used as a cause celebre for the disbelievers who think women cannot be violent. I would suggest the judgement is political because unless there is evidence, it cannot be said to be true.

Peter Hale's attacker, his wife Joanne Hale, got an abject six years for slitting his throat and stabbing him in the heart (coverage in The Sun, Telegraph and BBC).

These poor sentences are due to a number of factors.

Firstly, the judiciary as with all political parties, the establishment and multi-million pound domestic violence industry do not view or treat male victims of domestic violence in the same way as female victims. They know they cannot get away with such sentences if female were the victims, there would be one hell of backlash. They think male victims do not count.

Secondly, they can get away with passing such pathetic sentences because those mentioned above do not believe females can be this violent.

Lastly, because of three decades of social conditioning that only females can be victims of domestic violence, these sentences can be passed without comment by the media and others on how pathetic they are.

Update - Another article in Evening Chronicle shows that the judge is making it up when she says Newman was a battered women. No evidence. Read the comment from Terry3 on the newspaper's comments section. I would suggest that Terry Smith has probably been defamed by the judge.

Hattip - John Kimble