Tuesday 14 January 2014

Is it, y'know, just me?

From the BBC:-

On another occasion Mr Travis allegedly assaulted a female student after asking her to guard his camper van at Nottingham Polytechnic, where he was appearing as a DJ, between January 1983 and March 1984.

When Mr Travis came out of the van he grabbed her left breast, before saying "securi-titty", the prosecutor said. He later kissed the student before she ran away, after which she "felt stupid and humiliated".

First of all, it's all allegations, so may or may not be true, in the court etc

If he did these things, is this really worth prosecuting? Someone was a bit of an unfunny letch 30 years ago. Return a slap or knee to the groin and get on with your life. That's what girls did that I knew. She felt "stupid and humiliated"? So what? I've feel stupid and humiliated on a regular basis and within a day or two I move on.

Is it really going to be justice to give someone a criminal record and stick them on the sex offenders register  for that?

10 comments:

Woodsy42 said...

It's completely stupid isn't it, there has to be an ulterior motive for wasting court time over something so trivial so long ago.

JuliaM said...

"If he did these things, is this really worth prosecuting?"

Normal people wouldn't think so, but this is the culmination of years of progressive invasion of our institutions.

Anonymous said...

Assault is assault and I get the impression that there are a quite of few of them in his case. The thing is, these celebrities thought [reasonably enough for the time]that they could get away with this stuff as 'victims' would be too embarrassed or nervous to make any official complaints. It does send out a message to those who might think themselves in a position to take advantage of their status to think twice about doing so.

Mark Wadsworth said...

I'm with Paul on this one.

While none of the individual events appears to have been that terrible (it's nothing compared in Irish care homes etc), it does all add up.

There is not much point "punishing" these people after all these years, the key is to completely humiliate them in public (assuming they are guilty) and hopefully this will act as a warning to everybody else who behaves that badly in future.

Yes, these cases cost/waste a few £ million, but that works out at a few pence per citizen, probably money well spent if it discourages this in future.

Tim Almond said...

paulc/Mark,

"It does send out a message to those who might think themselves in a position to take advantage of their status to think twice about doing so."

Well, it only does if this is still a problem, rather than a feature of the times that the crimes were committed.

We follow the laws as they are prosecuted in our time. Shops aren't too careful about making sure that under 10s don't see naked mannequins because despite it still being law, no shops get prosecuted for it, or at least at the moment, no-one is likely to do so.

And back in the 1970s, social attitudes were different. People generally took the attitude that girls who let themselves get into those situations were the result of parents not looking after them, or being rather silly.

Even pre-Savile, you couldn't pinch a coworkers bum like you could in the 1970s. Back then, it was a cheeky, try-it-on thing to do. Your boss would have ignored it, or maybe had a quiet word. Today, you'd be lucky not to get fired.

Mark Wadsworth said...

TS; "We follow the laws as they are prosecuted in our time."

Correct, but what they did was, even by the standards of the 1970s, quite clearly wrong.

Whether it would have counted as a criminal offence I do not know, but surely they would have been ostracised at least, see also: Len Fairclough (career ended 1983 for exactly this type of thing).

Antisthenes said...

Being cynical by nature I cannot help believing that most of these so called victims are more interested in monetary gain than justice.

Bayard said...

W42: Hell holds no fury etc or see Anti's comment.

I would agree that she is probably an aspiring member of the compensariat.

Mark Wadsworth said...

Anti, these people aren't going to get anything in the way of compensation for a bit of uninvited fondling thirty years ago - that was the NOTW phone hackees who got the handsome pay-offs.

Tim Almond said...

Mark

Whether it would have counted as a criminal offence I do not know, but surely they would have been ostracised at least, see also: Len Fairclough (career ended 1983 for exactly this type of thing).

The Peter Adamson thing was about an allegation of indecently assaulting two 8 year olds in a swimming pool. Which is a lot difference to bum-pinching older teenagers.

Not saying bum-pinching older teenagers is OK, but at a different point in the scale.