In her Own Words
When the news broke at the end of February regarding the Supreme Court ruling to allow convicted paedophiles the right to appeal against being on the sex offenders register for life…I was absolutely furious.
Based on human rights our government now has to find a way to put this ruling into place and still safe guard the community. 15 years after being placed on the sex offenders register those wanting to appeal to come off the list can now do so.
I was absolutely outraged when I heard this on the radio and as the news was repeated over and over, I found I was just feeling more disgusted with it. I had to switch it off in the end…and here is where my objection to this ruling begins. As a survivor myself of childhood sexual abuse can I switch off what happened to me…no I cannot.
I have healed to a certain degree but will I ever be able to lead the life I may have had if I had not been abused for half of my childhood…and then spent all of my 20’s trying to process what had happened to me. Where were –my- human rights? When can I be granted the right to appeal and no longer be a victim/survivor of this hideous crime? The answer of course is that I cannot…we have no right to appeal…we live with the damage deep in our psyche for years after the crime…for some this lasts a whole lifetime. It isn’t just the victim who has to live with the cost of this either, we forget to consider the effects this has on the victims family, future partner, friends etc.
Therefore this ruling feels like a slap in the face to survivors all over the world. What an insult to add to our list of wounds this Supreme Court ruling truly is. As we know the sex offenders register has many short falls as it stands at the moment. Many who should be registered on there are not because they are not exposed or because they didn’t get a sentence long enough to warrant being placed on the list. Yet this register is all we have at this moment in time and to give the perpetrators of this type of vile crime a right to not even remain on a list is in my opinion crazy and dangerous.
We now wait to here how the government is going to put this right to appeal into action. How are we going to know that we can trust a convicted sex offender? More so in my opinion…WHY would we want to trust a convicted sex offender? The very nature of how these people commit the type of crime they commit is by devious, scheming, planning, being extremely secretive and deceptive…and in the light of that, again I ask WHY are we going to allow them to have our trust again? WHY are we going to allow them to come of a register that is in place to try to safeguard our children? For me this is not only a slap in the face for survivors…it is putting children at greater risk.
With all of this going through my mind I was so angry when I logged on to my Facebook account that morning. I spoke to one of my friends and I said “I am so angry that I just want to cry my eyes out” to which my wise friend replied “Don’t sit and cry…we need to do some…we need to start a petition” and that is exactly what I did. By 8.30am that same morning I had put together a petition and later that same day my friend and fellow survivor Sarah Fox published it online.
To date we now have over 4000 signatures and we need many more people to support us on this crucial issue. If people would like to sign the petition they can do so online at http://www.gopetition.com/petition/43086.html It takes just a few minutes to sign and we are asking if you can please share the petition link as far and wide as you can that would be greatly appreciated.
If you would like to collect signatures on a paper copy of the petition you email me at tangledweb010@yahoo.co.uk and request a copy of the petition from myself. I talk to survivors of sexual abuse 7 days a week via my online support group and my website www.thistangledweb.co.uk
I am the author of 2 books ‘This Tangled Web’ and ‘Nobodys Ragdoll’. I am also working on a group book called ‘SILENT NO MORE’ which has over 80 survivors included in this amazing book. I also now visit local colleges and other venues to share my story and knowledge of this subject.
I wish to thank ‘NAPAC’ and ‘SASH’ for supporting our petition on their websites. Please help us be a LOUD voice for the survivors and for our children. I will leave you with the words of my closest friend: When they sexually abused a child or adult…they did not respect that persons human rights…therefore they forfeited their own human rights.
‘Kate Swift’
March 17, 2011