Falsely Accused Carers and Teachers
There is an interesting article in The Times (March 21 2013) written by David Aaronovitch in which he attempts to balance out the often conflicting and competing claims of an imaginary person who was abused by a minor celebrity, and the claims of an imaginary innocent man who has been in the public eye. Imagine you are [...]
There is an excellent letter by John MacCleod in the Scottish Review (here) poublished on the 10th August 2011 in response to the JIm Fairlie case which compares the rspoonse to the investigation of allegations in general and the investigations of how allegations of child abuse are investigated.
Watching a video of someone else performing an action can make people think they actually did it themselves, according to a new university report. Scientists found that people who had watched a video of someone else shaking a bottle or shuffling a deck of cards often remembered performing the action themselves two weeks later. ‘We [...]
[My] blog has covered how American sex laws have expanded to such a degree that hundreds of teens per year are incarcerated for what was once considered fairly normal behavior. The great irony of all this is that the laws in question found their genesis in a hysteria from a couple of decades ago, which [...]
The following article by David Derbyshire appeared in the Daily Mail on the 2nd August 2010 From the thrill of a perfect childhood Christmas to the excitement of a holiday romance, memories can sustain and support us through life’s more difficult times. But according to scientists, many of our most treasured memories may never have [...]
The following article by David Derbyshire appeared in the Daily Mail on the 2nd August 2010 Mind games: Many of our most treasured childhood memories may be fictional From the thrill of a perfect childhood Christmas to the excitement of a holiday romance, memories can sustain and support us through life’s more difficult times. But [...]
There is an excellent obituary in yesterday’s Times of Lady Parker who died on the 11th March. Lady (Jill) Parker, a former GP, was a good friend of the British False Memory Society and a deeply compassionate person. The obituary can be found here
Two former soldiers jailed for a range of sexual abuse against children have had their convictions quashed. Dermot James Wade, 49, and his cousin, Dennis McCalmont Jnr, 46, were convicted in 2004 of 29 offences against boys and girls in the 1970s. The pair, from near Ballymoney, were released on bail, pending a decision on [...]
At the heart of the recent inquest into the death of Jean Charles de Menezes, the innocent Brazilian shot dead by police three years ago, was a simple question: whose version of events do you believe? Firearms officers recalled running on to the Underground platform at Stockwell and challenging de Menezes by shouting “Armed Police”, [...]
The following story appeared in the Irish media on the 25th July 2008 A court has heard that an “extremely anticlerical” social worker investigating alleged sexual abuse at a Galway school was eventually taken off the case by the former Western Health Board. Superintendent Jim Sugrue, now retired, told Dublin Circuit Criminal Court that the social [...]
A woman has told how her Midland family was torn apart after her sister made false child sex abuse allegations against their father. The daughter, now a high-profile figure in education, had claimed she was raped by her dad at the age of just two. But her shocked father and family have always denied the [...]
A woman who falsely accused her father of rape after undergoing a discredited “recovered memory” psychotherapy has won a £20,000 payout from a local health authority. Katrina Fairlie claimed a hospital psychiatrist almost ruined her life after he extracted false memories that her father, Jim, a former deputy leader of the Scottish National Party, [...]
The following letter in this Sunday’s Observer caught our attentionYour report, ‘Crackdown on therapists who abuse vulnerable’, (News, last week) will have been welcomed by the thousands who have had their lives wrecked by poor quality therapy and counselling. We at the British False Memory Society deal every week with people who have been falsely [...]
There has been further correspondence on the Can of Worms debate in the Herald Where does the Royal College of Psychiatry in Scotland really stand on Can of Worms? The report by Karen McVeigh (March 6) about the concerns being expressed by the Scottish division of the Royal College of Psychiatry about the booklet, Can of [...]
Jim Fairlie responds to criticism of his earlier letter in the Glasgow Herald regarding the Scottish Parliament’s decision to endorse the publication of a booklet on preventing child sexual abuse called a Can of Worms. Nowadays ‘expert opinion’ and ‘good intentions’ lead to witch-hunts and destroyed lives. Either Karen McVeigh has completely misquoted the spokesman for [...]
A new booklet for frontline workers to help inform them of the issues faced by adult survivors of childhood sexual abuse has recently been launched in Scotland. The booklet ‘A Can of Worms – Working with Survivors of Childhood Sexual Abuse’ is designed to encourage staff to feel more confident when working with adult survivors [...]
There has been some interesting research about aversion therapy can help control over eating. What you may ask has this to do with false allegations? This new approach to gluttony is based on the principle that by implanting false memories in the brains of compulsive eaters, they become convinced that in childhood they had become averse to [...]
Care Home Rresidents Seek CompensationMore than 60 people are claiming they were subjected to life-blighting ordeals at the long-closed St Vincent’s home and its sister establishment, St Aidan’s, in Widnes. The alleged victims are suing the Nugent Care Society, which is responsible for both homes, for substantial damages. Speaking at London’s High Court, Mr Justice Holland [...]
Posted on 15th February 2004February 15, 2004 Sex abuse myth ‘is rife in Ireland’Dearbhail McDonaldAN ORGANISATION established to fight false allegations of sexual abuse in Britain claims the Irish redress system has created a “myth-making machine”, with many complainants making extreme allegations about abuse. The claim, which has fuelled a bitter row with the main [...]
Posted on 8th January 2004There is a long but very interesting and informative article in The Times (Times 2) today on Prof Loftus’s work on false memory – well worth reading. The article also draws attention to some work by Prof Corwin which can be found here under the heading “child maltreatment”. Other articles by [...]
My attention has been drawn to an interesting article by James Le Fanu which was published in the Daily Telegraph. There are apparently now more counsellors in Britain than there are members of the Armed Forces. Some observers, such as Prof Frank Furedi, of Kent University, take a dim view of this, claiming that this [...]
The Victorian government will reportedly conduct an investigation into the practice of repressed memory therapy.The government revealed plans it would look into who was practising repressed memory therapy and the training they had received, according to a report on the ABC TV program Stateline.The Health Services Commissioner will oversee the inquiry which is expected to [...]
The Irish Republic’s Child Abuse Commission is seriously flawed, encouraging people who have not been abused to seek compensation and accuse innocent people, it was claimed today.The British False Memory Society and Irish group Let Our Voices Emerge (LOVE) criticised the commission and claimed the scale of alleged abuse in Ireland was incredulous and caused [...]
AN ORGANISATION established to fight false allegations of sexual abuse in Britain claims the Irish redress system has created a “myth-making machine”, with many complainants making extreme allegations about abuse. The claim, which has fuelled a bitter row with the main support group for victims of institutional abuse in Ireland, will be spelt out in [...]
There is a long but very interesting and informative article in the Times (Times 2) today on Prof Loftus’s work on false memmory – well worth reading. The Times