CANADA
Northumberland Today

By Grahame Woods, Northumberland Today
Wednesday, July 26, 2017

What happened was … the boy told his father, who talked to another father. The two of them talked to the vicar – and the curate left for another parish. It was never talked about again. By anyone.

Which was how it was done in 1940s England – for, in those days, sexual abuse never happened. The priest ‘interfered’ with young boys and was quietly sent somewhere else. And that, shush/shush, was that. Fast forward to 2017 – same country. 560 (reported) young soccer players sexually assaulted and over 250 team managers, so far, have been charged. A welcome change in the wording from ‘abuse’ to assault. And then, in the hallowed halls of the BBC there was …. but, wait. Hasn’t sexual assault and physical abuse, especially of boys by men, something of the norm…