The extent to which outside agencies became involved in Shieldfield was highlighted by the consultant paediatrician much criticised during the libel trial, Dr Camille San Lazaro, who in her letter to the editor of the journal, Child Abuse Review, Vol 3, 1994, expounded the need for a specialised approach to day care multiple abuse incidents. She described the parents' immediate demand for services from up to 30 organisations in the Newcastle area, including general practitioners, casualty departments, school doctors, health visitors, Childline, Incest Line, Rape Crisis, the NSPCC, Barnardos, community psychiatric nurses and the clergy. Were all these people and agencies swept along with the hysteria? Did anyone stop to question what was happening? Where we can, we will make contact with the agencies to seek their responses to these questions. BFMS … [Read more...]
North Wales farmer victim of false memory allegation
The jury took just five minutes to acquit North Wales farmer John Williams of abuse charges, alleged to have been committed between 1977 and 1985 on a girl between the ages of seven to 14. The judge, Mr Justice Poole, said nobody blamed the complainant, a solicitor now aged 30, who has an "unhappy history of psychiatric disorders". He told Mr Williams: "She was truly suffering from false memory syndrome and genuinely believed in memories that were entirely false.The trial at Chester Crown Court heard that the woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, imagined she had suffered sexual abuse as a child after watching two BBC programmes. One was That's Life, presented by Esther Rantzen, and the other was a spin-off called Childwatch Special. Ms Rantzen launched the ChildLine charity in 1986, soon after the programmes were aired. BBC … [Read more...]
The Law of Limitation in Ireland
Report published by the Law Reform Commission in Ireland (Dublin) on the Law of Limitation of actions arising from non sexual abuse of children. Contains some useful comments of false allegations and false memory Law Reform Commission in Ireland (Dublin) … [Read more...]
