6-21-2013 United Kingdom:
A SELF-STYLED "pervert catcher" has issued a warning to copycats about the dangers involved after he was run over when a recent sting turned "malicious".
The town's most prominent video vigilante Stinson Hunter is now recovering following a seven-day stay in hospital after he was knocked down by one man he had arranged to meet while posing as an underage girl.
"Two weeks ago I was run over by one of them, it was a meeting we were trying to do with a man [who was there] for sex," said Hunter.
"That is the most significant danger I have personally experienced. It was a malicious attack – he drove at me and I had to jump on to his car to stop him taking my legs, which is a bit sick."
Hunter, who says he has also previously been attacked with a tyre iron, suffered two broken ankles and head injuries during the incident.
His iPad, which he used to set up meetings, was also smashed during the collision.
Hunter said he felt compelled to speak out in response to the Herald's exclusive story last week concerning a Tamworth man who had been a victim of false accusations. The backlash from him being wrongly branded a pervert in a video sting by another "paedophile hunter" has left him fearing for his life.
The man, known as Jim, had arranged to meet a woman from a chat room who he believed was over 18. But he then received a message, apparently from the girl, saying she was only 15.
Jim was approached by the "paedophile hunter" and captured on video running away – footage which has since been viewed by thousands online.
"If he wasn't told that person's age until the day of the meeting that's wrong and I find that pretty disgusting," said Hunter.
"You cannot go around destroying somebody's life when they haven't done anything, if you are going to do this you have to make sure you have 100 per cent proof and have an idea of how the law works.
"It's a shame if he didn't do anything wrong, it's shameful and dangerous doing that and it can jeopardise the work I do with my lads."
Hunter has been setting up stings on his own for the past two years but in recent months has been joined by a team of others.
He claimed copycat hunters are instigating meetings for the "wrong reasons".
"Some of these other guys are just making a mockery of it all for fame or financial means," he said.
"Our group is a well-oiled machine. But these idiots are running around and they're not doing it the right way."
Hunter claims that as well as stating how old they are early on in the conversations when posing as girls, his team waits until the person is taken into custody before posting videos, which feature interviews with them, online and will remove them at the force's request.
He said he now wants to distance himself from other people taking the law into their own hands, claiming he works "in a completely different way".
Staffordshire Police, have urged anyone with information about child sexual abuse to contact them directly. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Hardern, from the force's Protecting Vulnerable People department, said:
"We understand the desire to protect children but any member of the public who has information about child sexual abuse, online or otherwise, should get in contact with the police so we can investigate and bring people to justice.
"Revealing the identity of suspected paedophiles gives the suspect the opportunity to destroy evidence before the police can investigate them. It also leads to people who have been identified going missing or raising concerns for their safety.
"If any member of the public has concerns about online grooming, they should report them to Staffordshire Police on 101, to CEOP at www.ceop.police.uk, or to Crimestoppers. If you think a child is at immediate risk of harm call 999." ..Source.. by Tamworth Herald
June 21, 2013
Paedophile hunter run over in sting that turned 'malicious'
April 19, 2013
Judge spares paedophile jail because brain tumour 'made him download child porn'
4-19-2013 United Kingdom:
A businessman has been spared jail for a second time in nine months for downloading child porn because he has a brain tumour.
Former company director, Stephen Pantlin, 49, downloaded hundreds of images of abused children on to his computers only months after being convicted of similar offences.
The 49-year-old defendant had previously been ordered to adhere to strict conditions, including having special monitoring software on his computer.
However, just a couple of months after his last conviction, he managed to get two new computers and a hard drive, so he could download hundreds of illegal images.
Today he walked free from court after the judge again accepted that the tumour and operations to reduce its size had affected his judgment.
Judge Jack Bayliss, sitting at Guildford Crown Court, sentenced Pantlin to an 18-month custodial sentence, suspended for two years.
He was also told he will have to serve 240 hours unpaid community work, and restart a two-year community order to go on a paedophile rehabilitation program.
Judge Bayliss said: 'The real evil of your substantive offences is the damage that’s done to children around the world. It’s horrendous.
'There’s only one thing stopping me from sending you straight to prison. That is the evidence of the removal of your fronto-temporal lobe and the effect that has had on you.
'I’m satisfied that has affected your breach of the sexual offence prevention order and your reoffending.'
Charlene Sumnall, defending, said Pantlin had no prior convictions before he had contracted the tumour last year, which led to surgeons removing his fronto-temporal lobe.
She said: 'It’s a slow-growing tumour that he’s got. The position of that tumour affects his judgement and impulse control, which is clearly a factor in his offending.
'This gentleman, who is now 49 years of age, had not been in trouble with the courts at all until that tumour. That must be a contributing factor.
'This offence has gone hand in hand with that tumour.'
Prosecutor Lee Harris said police raided Pantlin's home after it emerged he had not told his estranged wife he was on the sexual offences register. The information came out at a family court hearing in January this year. ...continued... by Helen Lawson
March 13, 2012
'Like watching the Jeremy Kyle show': Police blogger reveals force's 'Facebook car' to deal with threats made on the social networking site
Needed in the US?3-13-2012 United Kingdom:
A senior police inspector has revealed how a patrol car set aside for dealing with ‘non-urgent matters’ has been re-named the Facebook car.
The inspector, who writes a blog under the name Inspector Gadget, said that the ‘diary car’ was manned by a ‘hapless constable’ who had to drive from home to home listening to people whinge about threats made on the social networking site.
The cop said that after the announcement of new anti-stalking legislation by PM David Cameron last week the ‘Facebook Car’ would get so busy a dedicated ‘Stalking Car’ would also be needed.
The serving inspector - whose identity has never been revealed and calls the area he polices ‘Ruraltown’- said: “The Facebook car is officially called the ‘Diary Car’ or the ‘Pending Car’ (a patrol car which deals with non-urgent call outs’).
'These cars consist of a hapless constable, a long list of calls which we on the response team couldn’t answer because, well, there’s only four of us.
'Neighbourhood Constables have to drive from address to address all day, listening to endless tales of harassment on Facebook, threats by text and insults in the queue by the cigarette counter at the local Asda.
'These jobs never go anywhere. When it comes down to it, no one ever wants to support any kind of prosecution.
'Listening to these people is like watching the Jeremy Kyle show.
'What they all want is attention. Attention from each other, attention from us, attention from their housing officer.'
He added: 'Who exactly is going to enforce any new stalking legislation?
'We no longer have the capacity to answer more than two calls at once most of the time.
'Anyone on the frontline of the criminal justice system knows that within a month, the Ruraltown criminal underclass will all be reporting each other for ‘stalkin’ like’.
'In addition to a Facebook Car, the poor devils in the Ruraltown Safer Neighbourhood Team will probably now have to have a Stalking Car.”
He said that a new stalking law - which he dubbed ‘Jeremy’s Law’ after the chatshow Jeremy Kyle - would simply eat up police resources when local yobs report each other for Facebook comments.
He added: 'So now, when Wayne wanders around drunk, hiding in the bushes and shouting up at the flats about Jordan being a slag because she 'went with' his brother, the Facebook car can drop by and record it all as a case of stalking.
'I will call it Jeremy’s Law.
'Meanwhile, genuine stalking victims will probably be ignored, filtered out in the white noise.
'Introducing new legislation while cutting police numbers and closing police stations. You couldn’t make it up.' ..Source.. by Stian Alexander
November 4, 2011
Google removes review calling man a pedophile and thief
11-4-2011 United Kingdom:
Toni Bennett read the review on Google Places about his computer business. And then he read it again. And again. And he still couldn't believe it: An alleged customer named "Paul" posted these comments:
"Robbed My RAM and Touched 9 Year Old What a scam artist, he stole RAM from my computer and replaced it with smaller chips hoping I wouldnt notice and also I later found out touched my 9 year old inappropriately. A Violator and a rogue trader. DO NOT DO TRADE WITH THIS MAN!"Eighteen months later, the comments are no longer there. Google recently agreed to remove them, Bennett told the BBC. And it wasn't a moment too soon: the IT consultant from Bridgnorth, in Shropshire County, England, was on the verge of suing the search giant for defamation after repeated, failed efforts to have the comments removed.
Bennett even went to the police for help, "but he said that while they acknowledged the allegations against him were false, they were powerless to intervene," the BBC said.
"It's mad, it's just mad that someone can do this and it's so anonymous that someone can put on something about a crime against a child — you can't get any worse than that ... And they can get away with it," Bennett told the news organization.
Since the posting appeared in April 2010 on Google Places, a service that helps consumers search for local businesses, Bennett estimates he has lost 80 percent of his local clients.
Google would not comment to the BBC about the case; it normally does not publically discuss individual cases. But Google did cite its policies and guidelines for business review postings, saying in a statement that "We have rules against things like hate speech or impersonation, but we're not in a position to arbitrate disputes.
"However, we've built a free system that allows business owners to claim their listing, which means that they can then respond to reviews and share their side of the story."
The sting of the accusations remain for Bennett, who remembers his reaction when he first read them: "I was absolutely gobsmacked."
His request to remove the information was not only one in Britain; in a recent report about takedown requests, Google said in the United Kingdom, the "number of content removal requests we received increased by 71 percent" from January to June of this year, compared to the previous reporting period of July to December 2010. ..Source.. by Suzanne Choney
September 8, 2010
Accrington men tell sex assault charges 'hell'
9-8-2010 United Kingdom:
TWO Accrington men acquitted of sexually assaulting a woman have told of their ‘two years of hell’ since being accused.
Paul Berry, 33, of Park Road, Richard O’Brien, 26, of Norfolk Grove, both Accrington, and Jamie Clayton, 30, of Rossendale Avenue, Morecambe, were cleared by a jury following a second trial.
They were accused of carrying out a sex attack on the woman after she claimed they had bullied her outside a house in Riding Barn Street, Accrington, on September 26, 2008.
The men had insisted they just exchanged banter with the woman, and were stunned days later to find they had been accused of sexually assault.
Mr Berry and Mr O’Brien said the accusations led to them being shunned by friends and work colleagues and branded ‘rapists’ by vigilantes who vandalised their homes.
Both have added their voices to the debate over anonymity for men accused of sex attacks, saying ‘mud sticks’. The new coalition government were said to be proposing a change in the law to work alongside the anonymity of victims.
In April 2009, the three men first stood trial at Burnley Crown Court and jurors failed to reach a verdict.
When the retrial finished after four days, the jury took just 12 minutes to return unanimous not guilty verdicts last week.
Father-of-one Mr Berry, who works at Asda supermarket in Accrington, said: “When I was suspended from work, that made me look guilty straight away. I’ve had colleagues shouting ‘Oi, rapist’ in front of customers.
“My family have stood by me even though I can’t even go into my local pub.”
Mr O’Brien said he was angry about that the case was brought to court: “I’ve had my door kicked in and my windows smashed for something I didn’t do.
“This has been hanging over us for two years. It’s been embarrassing. I saw a friend and he wouldn’t speak to me, then his girlfriend said ‘You're up for raping a girl’.
“When we got the not guilty verdict it felt like the world had been lifted of my shoulders.
“Yet because we were accused, people still think we’re guilty. There should be anonymity for the accused until proven guilty.” ..Source.. Sam Chadderton, Crime reporter
September 5, 2010
Sex Offender Register is a Waste of Money
9-5-2010 United Kingdom:
Major criticism has recently been expressed with regard to the UK Sex Offender Register. Many senior police officers think it is a waste of time and money and nobody really believes it has ever prevented an offence from being committed.
Only yesterday, a man was convicted of organising the distribution of child porn on Facebook. What is more interesting is the fact that it was the Australian police who discovered the link with the UK not the much vaunted Child Exploitation and Online Protection branch of the British police. Indeed, if one looks closely at CEOP, it is clear that they, like most other branches of the UK police rarely actually detect anything; they simply wait for people to be ‘grassed up’ by other members of the public who may have a personal axe to grind.
The Sex Offender Register, as operated in the UK, is regarded by France, Spain, Italy and many other EU states as being unlawful. Futhermore, one must remember that it is another import from the US put in place as a knee-jerk reaction to a particular offence. The countries that do not follow the example of the UK seem to have many fewer problems than we do when it comes to managing risk. They also recognise that people can change for the better whereas the Bitish believe the opposite.
This site is of the opinion that the 2 million people who now earn a very good living as part of the UK Child Protection Industry are only allowed to continue to do so because they are also 2 million voters that no government wants to upset. Everyone in power is afraid to speak the truth of this ridiculous situation for fear of being citicised by the press.
What they should all realise is that the majority of sexual offences against children are committed in the family environment by people who are not on the register and who have not yet been caught. It is also the case that most of them are in fact never caught and so never appear on the Register. One reason for this is that the government and charities who rely on other people’s money are terrified of criticising families. Newspapers too are afraid of criticising those who buy their publications.
The very fact that the man convicted yesterday was already on the Sex Offenders Register – as well as the Visor register – and yet was still able to commit his offences, proves that the Register is useless, expensive, stigmatises people, prevents them from ever getting any sort of job again and, worst of all, protects no one.
The Opinion Site shares the view of the police chief who said the Register should be torn up and thrown away. The trouble is, our pathetic politicians are a bunch of total cowards who are afraid to do or say anything which may attract criticism and threaten their overpaid political positions of power.
It was recently suggested that there may well have been paedophiles in Tony Blair’s inner cabinet; strange how that didn’t get much publicity and more strange still that nobody allegedly involved was ever investigated. Well actually, it is not that strange. After all, there was no one to ‘grass them up’ was there? ..Opinion of: Andromeda
Prisoners have the right to safety, whatever their crime
9-5-2010 United Kingdom:
Prison Officers at Grendon prison are cynically blaming budget cuts for the death of a sex offender this week. According to the warders, the cuts have ‘put pressure’ on the system. That cynicism is bad enough but it pales into insignificance when compared with the vitriol that was poured out on BBC Radio 5 live by participants in the phone-in dealing with this incident.
Predictably, the people calling the program had nearly all had some personal experience of being abused. Their words betrayed their lust for vengeance and revenge rather than justice, a trait that is regularly encouraged by tabloid newspapers in order to sell more of their obnoxious copy.
The number of convicted sex offenders in the UK doubles every 5 years. Very few re-offend. The percentage of violent offenders who re-offend is 65%. Apparently, it is OK to bash people on the head and leave them as vegetables for the rest of their life just so long as you are not a ‘nonce’.
So be it. If that is the society that people want in this country then allow all the skull-crushing, maiming thugs out of prison after short sentences in order that they can seriously injure more people whilst, in the interests of public protection, you incarcerate more and more people who are probably not going to re-offend anyway.
Don’t forget too that it is apparently OK to allow sex offenders to be killed in prison. After all, that is what civilized people want, isn’t it? ..Opinion of: Andromeda
August 26, 2010
Mothers' group outraged after their Facebook campaign to expose paedophiles is removed from the internet
Their problem is, they reported the bad sites to the wrong people. i.e. the public instead of Facebook.8-26-2010 United Kingdom:
Six mothers who set up a campaign group on Facebook to track down and expose online paedophiles have been given a warning and had their page removed from the internet.
Leanne Moss, 33, set up the Mommies on a Mission group after claiming she stumbled across Facebook profile pages featuring images of child abuse.
The mother-of-four said she created the campaign page to raise awareness and to ensure the offensive profiles were reported.
But the group, which attracted more than 300 people in two days, was later removed by Facebook, who sent Mrs Moss a message saying the content violated their terms of use.
Mrs Moss, from Hull, who sells baby clothes using Facebook, said: 'It's ridiculous. We're the ones being made to feel like we've done something wrong.'
'In our eyes, all we are trying to do is protect our children. The group had 500 members but then I received a messaged from Facebook saying it was going against the rules.
All we were doing was posting links of profiles which featured sick images.'
Group member Joanne Bell, 32, from Carlisle, claimed it didn't make sense that Mommies on a Mission was removed when what they considered to be 'sick' profiles featuring child abuse were still on the site.
'How can they close the group for having sick content when these profiles are still there?
If they are monitoring us so closely, why can't they monitor these people?'
The group aimed to prevent a repeat of the murder of Ashleigh Hall, 17, who was groomed online by killer Peter Chapman before she was lured to her death.
Chapman, a convicted sex offender, was jailed for a minimum of 35 years in March.
Ashleigh's mother Andrea said Facebook's decision to shut down Mommies on a Mission was 'shocking'.
'They are very quick to shut down people who are trying to do some good for a change.
'If these people can do something good and prevent paedophiles getting in touch with young people then I wish them luck.
'I agree about it taking Facebook too long to remove a profile. I've repeatedly reported people to Facebook that are still on there now, almost a year later.'
'Of all people, I know what it's like to lose a child to a paedophile, but you will never be able to find all the paedophiles on Facebook.'
The Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, an organisation of police and child protection specialists, said anyone seeing suspicious content on Facebook should install and use the ClickCeop application to report it.
The safety button has already been installed by more than 55,000 people.
A spokeswoman for Ceop said: 'We are very interested to know about any concerns that people have around an individual suspected of grooming or anything like that.
'That is why we work with Facebook on the ClickCeop app that enables people to report concerns.'
A spokeswoman for Facebook said: 'Just as the people who use Facebook create all the content for the site, they also manage and regulate it.'
'We provide them with the tools to report any users or content they think is inappropriate, through reporting links on every page.
'Facebook prioritises the most serious reports, acting on most within 24 hours.' ..Source.. DAILY MAIL REPORTER
May 25, 2010
ANGER OVER THE SERIAL RAPE LIAR WHO DROVE AN INNOCENT MAN TO KILL HIMSELF
5-25-2010 United Kingdom:
A LYING woman whose false allegation of rape drove one man to suicide made the same allegation against another man and almost led him to take his own life too.
The consequences of the woman’s false allegations emerged when the second man was cleared by a jury of rape in just 45 minutes after a £30,000 trial.
But despite being exposed in court as a serial liar the 21-year-old woman will never be identified. Legal sources also said it was unlikely she would be prosecuted for perjury.
Innocent medical student Olumide Fadayomi, 27, was dragged through months of legal hell before the trial at Sheffield Crown Court saw his name cleared.
The jury were unaware of the woman’s history when they found him not guilty. Several broke down in tears after learning of the impact her deceit had on a previous man 18 months earlier.
They heard Judge Patrick Robertshaw attack the Crown Prosecution Service for pursuing a case “that should never have come to court” simply because the woman demanded it.
Judge Robertshaw said: “The evidence did not, and was never going to, prove rape. The prime overriding consideration in the CPS’s decision had been merely that the complainant wished the case to go ahead.
“It was little short of a craven abdication of responsibility for making an independent and fair-minded assessment of the case. It is quite astonishing these decisions are made by those who simply do not have experience of what happens in Crown Court because they never come into Crown Court. They sit behind desks and make decisions that result in this sort of trial.”
The judge revealed how 18 months earlier the same woman had made an allegation of rape against a young man who ended up committing suicide.
He said the case never reached court because it was “lacking in credibility”.
After being cleared last Friday Mr Fadayomi from Nigeria said yesterday: “My life has been hell for the last seven months. I thought about taking my own life. I’ve not been able to sleep properly since all this happened. My life has just been on hold.” The court heard that after failing to have the first man she accused of rape brought to court, the woman set about framing Mr Fadayomi, a stranger she met and seduced in a nightclub.
She boasted to friends: “I’ve got evidence this time.”
Mr Fadayomi told the jury the woman had agreed to consensual sex and he had no idea it was a rape trap.
The new government intends to re-introduce anonymity for alleged rapists until conviction.
Lawyer Nick Freeman, who successfully defended Emmerdale actor Lewis Linford against a false sex allegation, said judges must also be given the ability to waive the anonymity of women who make false accusations.
He said: “Women can make whatever allegations they like knowing the man will suffer the ignominy of having his name dragged through the mud while nobody will ever know who she is, no matter what lies she tells.”
But Ruth Hall, of Women Against Rape, said: “If men accused of rape got special rights to anonymity, it would reinforce the misconception that lots of women who report rape are lying.” ..Source.. Paul Jeeves
May 5, 2010
Facebook vigilante who outed 6,000 paedophiles is 'attacked by shamed offenders' (and he's set to name 8,000 more)
This man claims he is not a vigilante, but notice, he is taking the law into his own hands, and even violating the rights of many. The court records are secretly accessed and not available to the public, so where does he get the right to do this?5-5-2010 United Kingdom:
Is similar vigilantism the next step here in the U.S.?
Paedophiles named and shamed on a vigilante website have attacked its creator in the street, it was claimed today.
Chris Wittwer, who put the names and photos of 6,000 convicted sex offenders on Facebook, says he has been attacked three times near his home in Exeter by people he has put on the site.
He also claims he has received threats to his life and is now constantly concerned for his safety after launching his internet campaign.
‘Three people have attacked me in the last few months directly as a result of names I have put on there,’ he said.
‘They are on the sex offenders register and live in Exeter.’
Mr Wittwer, 34, says he includes people who have been charged on the list but not yet convicted for an offence.
But he said that he did not want to wrongly put anyone on the list. He said he compiles the list, which includes photographs and where the offenders live, from press releases, court records and the sex offenders register.
He then cross-references the name of a sex criminal against the national sex accessing the sex offenders register and court records which are not available to members of the public.
He would not reveal how but said he had secret sources and has another 8,000 names to go on the site.
‘I get lots of names and find out which court they were at,’ he said.
He set-up the page two-and-a-half years ago and has attracted 18,000 followersfrom all over the country.
He spends three or four hours a day doing it and is currently setting up a dedicated website.
Mr Wittwer claimed the government does not do enough to inform people about sex offenders living in the community.
‘I don't condone any violence,’ he said. ‘I am not a vigilante.
‘People can see who is in their area and keep their children away from them. There is more justice served by what I am doing than any court or jail can ever do.
‘What I am doing is a serious deterrent for people who have done it, are thinking of doing it or re-offending. ..Source.. Daily Mail Reporter
April 21, 2010
Sex offenders win appeal against indefinite inclusion on register
4-21-2010 United Kingdom:
Supreme court backs case of two sex offenders who claim being on register for life without review breaches their human rights
A supreme court ruling today has opened the way for hundreds of sex offenders to challenge whether they should remain on the sex offenders' register for life.
The ruling backed a case brought by two convicted sex offenders who challenged their indefinite inclusion on the register without any right to a review, claiming it breached their human rights.
One, who was convicted of rape when he was 11 years old, argued that being on the register had prevented him taking his family on holiday or playing rugby league. The other offender, Angus Aubrey Thompson, now aged 59, was jailed for five years for indecent assault 14 years ago.
Their lawyers argued they had been labelled for life without any opportunity to demonstrate they had reformed.
The current legislation says that any sex offender sentenced to a prison sentence of at least 30 months is placed on the register for life and has a duty to keep the police informed of any change of address or travel abroad.
The supreme court decision published today follows an appeal by the home secretary against an earlier appeal court ruling that the lack of any review was incompatible with the European convention on human rights, in particular the right to respect for a private and family life.
Lord Phillips, the supreme court president, said: "It is obvious that there must be some circumstances in which an appropriate tribunal could reliably conclude that the risk of an individual carrying out a further sexual offence can be discounted to the extent that continuance of notification requirements is unjustified."
The judges stressed that the ruling did not mean the sex offenders' register itself was illegal and said that it was entirely reasonable and lawful to monitor someone for life if they were assessed to be a danger to society.
But the judges rejected the home secretary's appeal, saying there was no evidence to show it was impossible to identify which sex offenders had reformed. Home Office research submitted during the case showed that 75% of sex offenders who were monitored over a 21-year period were not reconvicted of any offence.
Mike Pemberton, solicitor for F, who was convicted of the rape of a six-year-old boy when he was 11, said his client wanted a fair chance to show that he had reformed.
"This case is important because it considers the right of a child to mature and develop. At present, any child who commits an offence of this type is labelled for life with no consideration being given to the effect of growing older and learning important lessons from previous mistakes."
He said the men were not arguing to be automatically removed from the register, only for a chance for the risk they now posed to be reviewed.
The supreme court ruling means that an incoming government will need to look again at the law and introduce a review mechanism. Home Office officials will consider the ruling before making any recommendations. The existing requirements on sex offenders to notify the police of their movements remain in force in the meantime. ..Source.. Alan Travis, home affairs editor
February 15, 2010
Psychiatrists want to call being angry a mental illness. How utterly mad!
2-15-2010 United Kingdom:
Do you live surrounded by clutter - ancient copies of magazines, your children’s old toys, articles you’ve clipped out of newspapers over the years?
If you find it hard to throw out things of limited or no value, you could be suffering from hoarding disorder.
‘Hoarding’ is just one of the new mental conditions being added to the psychiatrists’ bible, or the Diagnostic And Statistical Manual Of Mental Disorders (DSM), to give it its proper name.
Other new conditions identified as possibly needing professional help include binge eating - which is said to affect many people who are seriously obese - and ‘cognitive tempo disorder’, which seems very like laziness (symptoms include dreaminess and sluggishness).
There’s also ‘intermittent explosive disorder’, which involves occasionally becoming very angry suddenly.
Most bizarre of the proposed additions is one defined as ‘getting a thrill at being outraged by pornography’.
It was also described as Whitehouse syndrome after the campaigner Mary Whitehouse, who objected to sexual content on TV.
The DSM is a large book that lists all psychiatric disorders and describes their symptoms. If a condition is in there, it means it’s considered a mental illness.
But some of the new entries are controversial, not least because of fears they will result in many more people being put on drugs that could be ineffective or dangerous.
The DSM is produced by the American Psychiatric Association and is hugely influential worldwide.
‘Once a condition has got a label you’ve got a better chance of being treated and researchers are more likely to investigate it,’ explains Professor David Cottrell, professor of child and adolescent psychiatry at the University of Leeds.
But not everybody is so relaxed about including new disorders. In fact, every time the DSM gets updated there is a big row about what should be added and what shouldn’t. This time is no exception.
There have been three versions of the DSM since the first in 1952 and with each edition it has grown fatter. - DSM-IV is seven times larger than the original. Last week, a draft of DSM-V - due to be published in 2013 - was put on the web and is already proving contentious.
While hoarding is largely uncontroversial - whatever inveterate newspaper clippers might think of being labelled ‘unwell’ - the inclusion of binge-eating disorder is being hotly opposed. So, too, is the addition of internet and sex addictions.
One of the most outspoken critics is Professor Christopher Lane, author of Shyness: How Normal Behaviour Became A Sickness.
He’s worried about the blurring of the line between eccentricity and illness. ‘The American Psychiatric Association is hell-bent on medicalising the normal highs and lows of people’s emotional lives,’ he says.
For this latest revision they’ve set up a special task force to decide if behaviours like bitterness, extreme shopping or overuse of the internet should be included,’ he says. ‘The science underlying all this is very shaky to non-existent.’
Even shakier was the basis for the supposed disorder of being excited about condemning pornography. Its formal name, ‘absexuality’, was coined by Carol Queen, a San Francisco sex shop owner.
She used it to describe those opposed to her work and campaigned to have it included
in DSM-V. But there is no evidence that this is going to happen. However, serious laziness and angry outbursts look as if they may make it through.
The chairman of the task force, Dr David Kupfer, claims the updates are firmly based on scientific evidence. However, while scientists have made huge strides in understanding the brain’s workings using scans, DSM-V will rely on descriptions of disorders because there’s not a single biological marker for them.
So while doctors predict your risk of heart disease from your cholesterol levels and blood pressure, there are no physical tests for hoarding, say.
This makes the potential-inclusion of binge eating in the new edition especially worrying, says Professor Lane. ‘Research into its causes has so far been inconclusive and highly speculative, so I’m very disturbed about this proposal.’
Dr David Haslam, of the National Obesity Forum, disagrees. ‘This is a serious problem that affects as many as 20 per cent of obese patients,’ he says. ‘But treating it in the same way with advice to lose weight, exercise and even to have surgery can be disastrous unless the emotional problems are dealt with.’
But what’s really causing the fur to fly is the proposal that the new manual should include ‘risk syndromes’ - symptoms that some psychiatrists believe act as an earlywarning sign of serious mental health problems in the future. These risk syndromes could be used to start treatment early.
However, critics have pointed out that 70 per cent of children said in the past to be at high risk of developing psychosis have not done so.
‘I completely understand the idea of trying to catch someone early,’ says Dr Michael First, professor of psychiatry at Columbia University, who edited the previous edition of DSM.
‘But there is a huge potential for many unusual kids to fall under this umbrella and carry this label for the rest of their lives.
‘The more disorders you put in the DSM, the more people get labels and the higher the risk that they will get inappropriate treatment.’
This is a major worry, says Dr David Healy, of the department of psychiatry at the University of Wales.
Dr Healy is highly regarded worldwide for helping to expose the way drug companies concealed evidence about the dangers of some antidepressants. He believes the move to treat mental ‘disorders’ early is ‘likely to massively increase the number of people receiving drugs’.
‘Too many psychiatric patients are just drugged with little concern for the side effects as it is,’ he says.
Indeed, these side effects have made the use of drugs to treat mental health problems an increasingly sensitive topic.
Research has shown that some anti-depressants - Serotonin Selective Reuptake Inhibitors such as Seroxat - can double the risk of suicide and may be no better than a placebo for most patients.
Meanwhile, a report found that 1,800 elderly people with dementia die every year as a result of being prescribed antipsychotic tranquilisers.
The situation is slightly complicated in Britain by the fact that psychiatrists rely on both the DSM and another system called the International Statistical Classification of Diseases. However, the two overlap very closely and DSM is a major influence here.
‘We are having meetings about revising the International Statistical Classification of Diseases at the moment,’ says Professor Sue Bailey, registrar of the Royal College of Psychiatrists.
‘We are looking to see if there are risk factors, based on good science, that we can use to predict future problems.’
That doesn’t reassure the sceptics. ‘Psychiatrists love defining new disorders and creating more and more subcategories,’ says Oliver James, clinical psychologist and author. ‘But when you are faced with someone in distress, what you want to know is what is the underlying fault and how best to treat it. ..Source.. Jerome Burne
February 12, 2010
Facebook takes down 30 prisoners' pages after victim taunts
2-12-2010 United Kingdom:
Jack Straw, the justice secretary, says the offending pages brought to the attention of Facebook had been removed within 48 hours
Thirty Facebook pages have been taken down because prisoners were using them to taunt their victims, Jack Straw, the justice secretary, has revealed.
The minister said the 30 offending pages brought to the attention of Facebook had been removed within 48 hours. Ministers were seeking to identify "better methods" of preventing the "deplorable" abuse of victims via social networking sites, he added.
Straw was speaking after a meeting with Ofcom's Chris Woolard, Facebook's European director of policy, Richard Allan, and members of Families United to talk about the issues around prisoners' access to social networking sites.
He said he was "reassured by the co-operation which we're receiving from Facebook" as he called today for a longer-term solution "to this very modern version of the old problem of victim harassment".
"It's not that people at Facebook have a different sense of morality from us," he told the BBC. "They have the same sense of morality but they have to police hundreds and thousands of their sites, so what we have to do is set up a better system with Facebook.
"So essentially if they get a notice from us that this site is improper then all they have to do is not make a judgment about it, but press the delete button. That's what we are working towards."
Straw said ministers were also looking to "raise the stakes" against prisoners who use Facebook, which is against prison rules.
Prisoners are only meant to have access to the internet for educational purposes and under close monitoring.
Straw said it might be possible to change the rules under which prisoners are freed on parole and temporary licence, to make it "explicit" that they cannot make use of sites in this way.
Ministers are also looking at ways to stop inmates using smuggled mobile phones to access webpages and abuse their victims, said the minister.
Legislation is under way to make the possession of a mobile phone in prison without authorisation a criminal offence, and body orifice scanner chairs are now located in every prison in England and Wales.
"We are getting much tougher about people smuggling telephones into prison and using them. I'm afraid we're dealing with crooks. Devious, manipulative people who actually have no respect for their own bodies so they push these mobile telephones into their body orifices."
Straw also said there is evidence that the families of some prisoners have been involved in updating sites.
Last month, it emerged that one of Britain's most notorious gangsters used Facebook to threaten his enemies while serving a 35-year sentence in a maximum security prison.
Colin Gunn, an underworld boss who helped plot the murder of two grandparents, sent messages to 565 "friends" after being transferred to a prison where he claimed officials had a relaxed attitude to social networking.
"I will be home one day and I can't wait to look into certain people's eyes and see the fear of me being there," Gunn wrote in one message, according to the Sunday Times.
Jade Braithwaite, who was convicted of killing 16-year-old Ben Kinsella, used the same website to boast he was "down but not out".
He also said he wanted a remote control so he could "mute or delete people when I need to". Facebook later took down the offending page.
Straw said today: "Facebook's rules already ban harassment and intimidation, fake profiles and the sharing of login details with anyone. They will remove profiles where it is reported to them these rules have been breached. We will not hesitate to use existing law to tackle those cases where offenders seek to taunt or harass victims and their families." ..Source.. Hélène Mulholland and agencies
January 28, 2010
Naming of teenage rapist 'violates UN law'
Europe is covered by a different Human Rights Declaration than folks in the U.S.1-28-2010 United Kingdom:
A judge's decision to name a 13-year-old rapist violates the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC), according to a leading children's rights campaigner.
Balal Khan, now 14, of Cobridge, Stoke-on-Trent, was sentenced to three years in a young offenders' institution after admitting raping a 20-year-old woman when he was 13. He also admitted a further charge of robbery.
During the case at Stoke Crown court Judge Paul Glenn allowed the naming of Khan, to act as a deterrent to others.
However, Katy Swaine, legal director at the Children's Rights Alliance for England, said that naming Khan contravened UNCRC guidelines that say children's privacy should be respected at all stages of criminal proceedings.
She said: "This was clearly a very serious attack. However, he is still a child and this means that he is required under UK and international law to be treated differently from an adult.
"This principle is based on children's vulnerability to outside influence, early developmental stage and capacity for rehabilitation. He has admitted what he has done, which is the first step towards rehabilitation. Custody is a grave sentence for a child and must only be used for the shortest possible period of time."
During his victim's ordeal the court heard that Khan took a phone call from her boyfriend in which he bragged about the attack. The judge said that Khan would have been given an eight-year sentence if he had been an adult. ..Source.. Joe Lepper
January 26, 2010
Boys who watch porn 'think sexual harassment is acceptable'
1-26-2010 United Kingdom:
Boys who look at porn grow up to be men who think sexual harassment is acceptable, a new study has found.
Research into pornography in a dozen countries found that boys who are exposed to pornography found it more difficult to form successful relationships when older, while they were more likely to have casual sexual intercourse.
Previous research has found that six in 10 boys in Britain under 16 have watched pornography, either accidentally or deliberately. The average amount of time they watch porn on the internet is 90 minutes a week.
Michael Flood, who carried out the study at the Australian Research Centre in Sex, Health and Society, said: "There is compelling evidence from around the world that pornography has negative effects on individuals and communities.
"Porn is a very poor sex educator because it shows sex in unrealistic ways and fails to address intimacy, love, connection or romance. Often it is quite callous and hostile in its depictions of women.
"It doesn't mean that every young person is going out to rape somebody, but it does increase the likelihood that will happen."
John Carr, secretary of the Children's Charities' Coalition on Internet Safety (CHIS), told The Sunday Times: "We had a case in west London where a boy in the first year of primary school was bringing pictures to school and was acting them out in the playground during the break. When they did a home visit the dad was downloading it and it was all over the house.
"It is not an argument for banning it but it is an argument to find better ways to make it harder for kids to get hold of it."
Petra Boynton, a psychologist, added: “Children are not necessarily looking at porn for gratification. They are doing so because they are bored and not supervised. Often when children look at more extreme porn it is done for bravado so they can laugh and say how disgusting it is.”
Last months scientists at the University of Montreal set out to research the effects of pornography only to abandon their study because they were unable to find any 20-year-old men who had not been exposed to it. They did however find that young boys first watched pornography when they were just 10. ..Source..
December 8, 2009
Cheating wife cried rape to hide three-month affair
12-8-2009 United Kingdom:
A CHEATING wife made up a rape claim to hide an affair – leading to two innocent men being arrested and £3,800 wasted on the police investigation.
Helen Dalby sent a text to her husband to say she had been followed home by a stranger and raped in a bedroom – because she felt guilty about having sex with her lover that day.
She had been having a three-month-long affair with him after meeting through a telephone dating service – and he was later arrested during the police investigation.
Dalby, 35, of St Michael's Road, Grimsby, has been given a 10-month suspended prison sentence – with a single condition that she lives for six months in her own home – for admitting perverting the course of justice between August 14 and 22 by making a false rape claim.
Grimsby Crown Court was told she claimed to police that she had been followed, pushed into her house by a stranger and raped in a bedroom.
The investigation led to hours of wasted police time, costing more than £3,800.
Dalby, the court was told, had shown little regard for the lives of the men who wrongly came under suspicion – and that they could have faced a "nightmare".
Judge David Tremberg told her: "Your lies diverted a massive amount of precious police time and resources from proper duty."
Two innocent men had been "locked up and detained for many hours" during the investigation, he continued.
"They no doubt will have wondered what might have happened to them if this nightmare did not go away," he added.
Judge Tremberg said behaviour such as Dalby's risked weakening the cases of genuine rape victims who came forward – and could possibly lead to potentially dangerous offenders being acquitted.
The prosecution pointed out that in other, similar cases, prison sentences of two years or 18 months had been imposed.
But Judge Tremberg claimed this case was "exceptional" because, unlike the cases of other women who had been jailed, Dalby did not act out of "spite or malice". ..Source.. Grimby.co.uk
Alleged false rape claim woman in court
12-8-2009 United Kingdom:
A WOMAN who allegedly falsely claimed she was raped at a Hampshire beauty spot has appeared in court for the first time.
Gemma Mann is charged with perverting the course of justice in relation to an alleged incident at Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley on November 14, which sparked a largescale police investigation.
Yesterday, the 24-year-old, of St Clements Way, Bishopdown, Salisbury, attended a preliminary hearing at Southampton Magistrates’ Court.
No plea was entered and Mann was released on unconditional bail until December 3, when she is due to appear at Southampton Crown Court. ..Source..
Teenager admits false rape claim
12-8-2009 United Kingdom:
Elgin court told of huge investigation
PREGNANT teenager’s mother said today she was mystified over why her daughter falsely claimed she had been raped at knifepoint.
Moray College student Lucinda Hicks, of 23 Kingsmills, Elgin, told officers she had been raped by an unidentified man on a pathway near Grampian Road, Elgin, on April 9.
Elgin Sheriff Court heard the false allegations resulted in Grampian Police devoting almost 800 police officer hours to the inquiry and questioning more than 300 people.
Hicks, 17, who is due to give birth early in January, admitted making false representations and causing the police to devote time and services, at the public expense, to an investigation which she knew to be false.
Fiscal depute Ann-Maria Colquhoun said Hicks was found in a distressed state by a restaurant employee. She told the court: “She asked what was wrong and the accused told her she had been raped. She also noted that the accused had cuts to the right side of her face and her lip was bleeding.”
Ms Colquhoun added after the investigation was launched, Hicks’s story was found to be inconsistent.
“She eventually admitted, during a lengthy interview, that she had lied,” she said.
Defence solicitor Alison Ross said Hicks was believed to have been suffering from depression at the time.
Hicks’s mother Ella said her daughter had suffered a miscarriage and her grandmother had died shortly before the incident.
She said she was “petrified” at the prospect of a custodial sentence.
Sentence was deferred for background reports until December 14. ..Source.. Evening Express
October 4, 2009
Woman jailed for false rape claim
10-4-2009 United Kingdom:
A woman who made a false rape claim after having sex with two teenagers has been jailed for a year.
Victoria Salter, of Lostock Hall, told police in September last year she was raped by three men while one looked on.
This led to the arrest of three 17-year-olds but one of them had filmed the incident which proved the sex was consensual, the court heard.
Salter, 26, who earlier admitted perverting the course of justice was jailed at Preston Crown Court.
Salter, of Broad Meadow, dialled 999 to make the false report in September 2008.
She said she had been followed home by four men and was raped by three of them while the fourth watched.
But the court heard that Salter had been filmed on a mobile phone during the sexual encounter and had been partaking "enthusiastically". ..Source.. by BBC
September 30, 2009
UK- False rape allegation forces gay US soldier to out himself
9-30-2009 United Kingdom:
A gay US Air Force officer was forced to reveal his sexuality in order to clear himself of a false rape allegation, an admission which cost him his job.
According to Associated Press, Lt Col Victor Fehrenbach was discharged under Don't Ask, Don't Tell last year but is now using his story to highlight the injustices suffered by those fired under the law.
In 2008, he was questioned by police over an alleged rape of an acquaintance. Although his accuser Cameron Shaner was later discredited and found to be an "unreliable source of information", Fehrenbach had to admit the pair had engaged in consensual sex at his home after meeting on a gay website. Police found no evidence of the alleged rape.
Although he was soon cleared, the Air Force had a legal right to see the statement in which he admitted having consensual gay sex and he was notified last year that he would be discharged.
Emily Hecht, a lawyer for the Servicemembers Legal Defence Fund, said: "Because of the criminal allegation, Victor confirmed the fact he was gay.
"That's all the Air Force needed. Had his accuser been a woman, he'd have gone back to work with no further issue."
Fehrenbach's parents had both served in the Air Force and retired at the time of their choice. With 18 years in service, he was only two years away from a $46,000 annual pension.
He is currently on desk duty at Mountain Home as assistant director of operations for the 366th Operations Support Squadron.
Since his dismissal, Fehrenbach has come out to his parents and appeared on the Rachel Maddow Show.
Appearing on the show in May, he said: "I was faced with the end of my life as I knew it . . . The more I thought about it, about how wrong this policy is, I thought that I had to fight. And perhaps, with my unique perspective, I could speak out and help other people in the meantime."
Since Fehrenbach's discharge notification, pressure to repeal the 1993 law has been stepped up and US defence secretary Robert Gates has mentioned the idea of a more nuanced interpretation of the law, one which would see those outed by others with questionable motives being treated more leniently.
It is not yet known when he will officially leave service although he believes it will be this autumn.
Despite the circumstances of his case, and his new role as the poster boy in the fight against DADT, Fehrenbach has said he will happily rejoin the armed forces should the law be repealed. ..Source.. by Jessica Geen
