03-09-2023, 03:35 PM
Stumbled across this just now. Absolutely appalling that this could be deliberately suppressed by an abuser, but he had the power to do so at the time. 
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...xual-abuse
"One morning, a fortnight ago, I checked the BBC headlines┬áto find my old editor, Peter Wilby, peering out. HeÔÇÖd been exposed as a paedophile and convicted of possessing child sexual abuse images. I still feel sick at the discovery.
It would be disturbing enough to discover anyone you knew had done something so terrible ÔÇô he was convicted of possessing images of children being raped since the 1990s. But Wilby wasnÔÇÖt anyone. He was a pillar of the media establishment, an editor of the┬á[i]Independent on Sunday[/i]┬áand the┬á[i]New Statesman[/i], and a┬á[i]Guardian[/i]┬ácolumnist.
Journalists who had worked with Wilby were appalled at his crimes, while others raged at his ÔÇ£hypocrisyÔÇØ, but what shocked me was the creeping realisation that he had used his position as an editor and columnist to create what the writer Beatrix Campbell has called a ÔÇ£hostile environmentÔÇØ for victims of abuse.
In April 1991, I learned of mental and physical abuse at Ty Mawr childrenÔÇÖs home in Gwent, south Wales, where some residents had attempted suicide.
I thought Wilby would be excited at the prospect of a scoop, but he couldnÔÇÖt have been less interested. I took it to the daily┬á[i]Independent,[/i]┬áwhich put it on the front page and made a campaign of it.
Seven months later, I reported on an┬áabuse scandal in north Wales, centred on the Bryn Estyn childrenÔÇÖs home in Wrexham, where former residents said they had been sexually assaulted by care home staff and a senior policeman. The story led the front page of the┬áIndependent on Sunday, where Wilby was then deputy editor and, I later learned, had advised the editor against publishing it.
But one of those implicated in the abuse, Supt Gordon Anglesea, successfully sued for libel and it marked the start of a wider backlash, led by Wilby, against whistleblowers, victims and journalists who paid too much heed to their claims.
As┬á[i]New Statesman[/i]┬áeditor, he published articles denigrating the north Wales victims as ÔÇ£damagedÔÇØ and manipulated by journalists such as me, all part of a modern witch-hunt in which the real victims were those accused of abuse. The Anglesea libel verdict was regularly cited as evidence of the witch-hunt.
Some of my witnesses in this investigation did not survive. Three killed themselves, two of whom had alleged sexual abuse by Anglesea. The former senior policeman was┬áeventually convicted in 2016┬áof sexually assaulting two boys, aged 14 and 15, at an ÔÇ£attendance centreÔÇØ he ran for runaways. He was sentenced to 12 years and died in jail a few weeks later, but it was more than 25 years too late.
┬áMark Humphreys never lived to see the justice he craved; he took his life a few weeks after AngleseaÔÇÖs 1995 libel case victory.
The heroic whistleblower in the north Wales case, the former social worker and now novelist Alison Taylor, sued Wilby and the [i]New Statesman[/i] for defamation and won an apology.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...xual-abuse
"One morning, a fortnight ago, I checked the BBC headlines┬áto find my old editor, Peter Wilby, peering out. HeÔÇÖd been exposed as a paedophile and convicted of possessing child sexual abuse images. I still feel sick at the discovery.
It would be disturbing enough to discover anyone you knew had done something so terrible ÔÇô he was convicted of possessing images of children being raped since the 1990s. But Wilby wasnÔÇÖt anyone. He was a pillar of the media establishment, an editor of the┬á[i]Independent on Sunday[/i]┬áand the┬á[i]New Statesman[/i], and a┬á[i]Guardian[/i]┬ácolumnist.
Journalists who had worked with Wilby were appalled at his crimes, while others raged at his ÔÇ£hypocrisyÔÇØ, but what shocked me was the creeping realisation that he had used his position as an editor and columnist to create what the writer Beatrix Campbell has called a ÔÇ£hostile environmentÔÇØ for victims of abuse.
In April 1991, I learned of mental and physical abuse at Ty Mawr childrenÔÇÖs home in Gwent, south Wales, where some residents had attempted suicide.
I thought Wilby would be excited at the prospect of a scoop, but he couldnÔÇÖt have been less interested. I took it to the daily┬á[i]Independent,[/i]┬áwhich put it on the front page and made a campaign of it.
Seven months later, I reported on an┬áabuse scandal in north Wales, centred on the Bryn Estyn childrenÔÇÖs home in Wrexham, where former residents said they had been sexually assaulted by care home staff and a senior policeman. The story led the front page of the┬áIndependent on Sunday, where Wilby was then deputy editor and, I later learned, had advised the editor against publishing it.
But one of those implicated in the abuse, Supt Gordon Anglesea, successfully sued for libel and it marked the start of a wider backlash, led by Wilby, against whistleblowers, victims and journalists who paid too much heed to their claims.
As┬á[i]New Statesman[/i]┬áeditor, he published articles denigrating the north Wales victims as ÔÇ£damagedÔÇØ and manipulated by journalists such as me, all part of a modern witch-hunt in which the real victims were those accused of abuse. The Anglesea libel verdict was regularly cited as evidence of the witch-hunt.
Some of my witnesses in this investigation did not survive. Three killed themselves, two of whom had alleged sexual abuse by Anglesea. The former senior policeman was┬áeventually convicted in 2016┬áof sexually assaulting two boys, aged 14 and 15, at an ÔÇ£attendance centreÔÇØ he ran for runaways. He was sentenced to 12 years and died in jail a few weeks later, but it was more than 25 years too late.
┬áMark Humphreys never lived to see the justice he craved; he took his life a few weeks after AngleseaÔÇÖs 1995 libel case victory.
The heroic whistleblower in the north Wales case, the former social worker and now novelist Alison Taylor, sued Wilby and the [i]New Statesman[/i] for defamation and won an apology.
in order to be old & wise, you must first be young & stupid. (I'm still working on that.)