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Allegations of Sexual
Abuse |
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News Reports 2004 |
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There ought to be a law against
the charm brigade, or some kind of sign gouged into their foreheads as a
warning. Unfortunately we live in a human Discovery
channel. The young and tasty get devoured by crafty things with sharp teeth. Charmers can be good-looking,
well-educated and seemingly everything they're not: trustworthy, reliable,
caring people such as doctors and priests. Many young people take foolish
risks, especially sexual ones, and then assume blame for the consequences. A
kind of mad vanity stops them understanding they have been preyed upon, which
is why learning from experience takes so long. Somewhere there'll be friends and
family of disgraced former priest Alan Woodcock, 56, and Matthew James Boyd,
a 27-year-old doctor who has also fallen from grace. They'll be tearily
swearing that these men could not possibly be guilty of the crimes they have
admitted, because they are so nice, so good-looking, so intelligent, so
sincere. They'll be telling stories proving the truth about their friends, as
they see it. Truth it may be but it's only part of the truth. Last week Woodcock pleaded guilty
in The Catholic Church shares Woodcock's
disgrace. He first assaulted a 17-year-old youth in 1979, to its knowledge,
and after that was unwisely placed by his order at St Patrick's College in
Silverstream, a teacher in a position of trust among many more young men and
boys. When St Pat's students complained of abuse, the school gave him some
rules to abide by, and moved him on. He kept moving on, and each time he
moved to another church placement, the charges against him record, he
offended again. Victim Terry Carter, who made the
nasty business public in 1994, says of Woodcock that he was "charming,
brilliant - completely opposite to the other priests". Still bitter at
the offending, and the cover-up which allowed it to continue, he wants
apologies from the hierarchy who stood by. Whether the Society of Mary,
Woodcock's former order, was numb with embarrassment, ignorant, or just keen
to protect its own public image, the result was the same: it did not give
priority to the safety of the boys and young men entrusted to its care. I don't automatically assume that
celibacy is nonsense, and that all single-sex institutions are doomed to
harbour deviancy. Often the most appalling sexual offenders have rampant,
unimpeded sex lives with many willing adult partners. Nor do I imagine that
religious people are more likely to be hypocrites than others. Hypocrites
they may turn out to be but at least they stand for values for which they can
be held accountable. This is preferable to having no values at all. The
church may have tried to sweep Woodcock's disgrace under the carpet but,
thank goodness, its efforts were bumbling. It would have been worse had they
been polished and skilful. Looking at Boyd, questions arise
about how people are selected for, and supervised in, the medical profession.
National leader Don Brash recently publicised complaints from parents of
bright students who'd failed to gain places at medical school, while young
Maori with lower grades had been accepted. That was part of another argument
but what interested me about those parents was the implication that their
children had a right to become doctors just because they were high academic
achievers - not because they were caring, empathetic, or even socially
responsible. It's hard to believe Boyd passed
through years of medical training without showing any sign of his unpleasant
tendencies, but he did. When he was finally caught, he'd been wooing underage
girls on the internet and inviting them to his mid-city flat, where they were
free to smoke, drink and have sex with their boyfriends. Both he and Woodcock
now await sentencing. How different from these sleazy
charmers is the virtuous NZ Idol Ben Lummis. He may be no actual virgin but
the 25-year-old doesn't do drugs, smoke or have sex any more; he has taken a
vow of chastity. He has been re-virginised. I am tempted to observe virginity
is over-rated but, considering the lurch in venereal disease statistics among
under 25-year-olds reported recently, I won't. Too many of those depressing
statistics will relate to adventures people will one day cringe to recall.
Far too many will be souvenirs of foraging expeditions by human crocodiles. |