As America has spent its time obsessing over the existence or nonexistence of the Epstein list. I’ve resisted the temptation to become embroiled in the debate, other than to say child sexual abuse is abhorrent and anyone associated with it should be prosecuted to the full extent of the law. Do I think Trump was involved? I believe that based on everything we know about his behaviour and attitude towards women, it is highly likely, but my opinion is not fact. Under the law, he should be afforded the presumption of innocence, which is more than he is affording non-white people who are currently being abducted from American streets by masked thugs every day.
Maybe it’s time we looked beyond the political feeding frenzy and paid attention to the reality of child abuse, both sexual and violent, along with wider neglect. These crimes are tragically far too prevalent in our society throughout all walks of life; it’s just that the Epstein case has a political dimension that allows it to be weaponised for political gain. As with all types of abuse, the rich exercise their position of status and power to perpetrate abuse, from sexual to economic exploitation; they leverage their wealth to act with impunity, employing expensive lawyers and connections to escape accountability. The Epstein case is a classic example.
I find this a challenging subject to address because it has profoundly impacted my family, having experienced its impact firsthand. An elderly neighbour molested my youngest daughter, who suffers from autism. We knew nothing about what was happening and were only alerted to it when she was brought home early one day from school by a child welfare officer who shattered our lives by informing us that she had revealed the abuse in a discussion with a teacher in a class discussion about child exploitation.
Even to this day, I struggle to articulate how I felt in that moment. My failure to protect, and a deep sense of failure as a parent, that she had been unable to tell me what she had endured so that I could have taken action to stop it. The rage I was to feel did not kick in immediately because I was in a state of emotional overload, struggling to work out what to do. This was made more complicated by the fact that it had happened two years previously. I have no intention of going into the details of what followed, except to say that it changed me as a person.
Historic child sexual abuse is almost impossible to prosecute in a situation where you have the word of a neurodivergent child against an accused adult abuser. To cut a long story short, he was arrested and charged, but the Crown Prosecution Service determined that there was insufficient evidence to secure a prosecution. The only consolation at the time was that he was put on a police watchlist for sex offenders. The years that followed saw us immediately move home, for fear I would be sent to prison for what I felt like doing, but our primary motive was so our daughter would not have to face seeing her abuser every day.
These crimes have devastating consequences, and I am a witness to that. In the years that followed, we saw my daughter fall victim to drug abuse, self-harm, and abusive relationships that broke our hearts, but we never gave up on her. We had a debt to pay for having failed her. We went through long periods of not knowing where she was or if she was safe. As she was over 18 and suffered from high-functioning autism, the police, who might I add were phenomenal, could not bring her home, but what they did do was carry out safety checks and ensure we knew she was not in immediate danger.
One winter evening, the doorbell rang. It was a constant nightmare that the police would inform us that the worst had happened. I opened the door, and there she was, with her worldly possessions in two black sacks and the words, ‘I’m sorry.’ It was in this moment that the road to recovery began. It’s certainly not something I would want to experience again, but you'll be delighted to hear that there’s a happy ending to this story. With therapy and a great deal of effort on her part, she now has a good job and has met a man who loves her. It took years, but she survived, and I am in awe of how she has become a stronger woman despite her suffering.
In America, child sexual abuse is a widespread problem. The Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network reports that every nine minutes, Child Protective Services substantiates, or finds evidence for, child sexual abuse. Statistics on child sexual abuse are notoriously difficult to track down, and there is also now the additional consideration of online child sexual abuse, which adds a whole new dimension to the problem. To be clear, this is not just an American problem; it’s a global problem.
I emphasise once again that child sexual abuse goes way beyond the political feeding frenzy going on in Washington and the FYPs of social media platforms. It is a VERY REAL problem that will be here long after the political Ads and performative politicking have receded. Children have long been the targets of predatory behaviour, primarily but not exclusively by men. It almost always involves premeditated, deceptive behaviour from those who work hard to be put in positions of trust.
It exists in all walks of life, from politicians to judges to faith leaders to anyone entrusted with the welfare of our children. It also extends to parents and family members. There is no corner in society where children are not at risk. Republicans have become obsessed with child protection from sexual abuse, none more so than since the advent of Trump and the birth of their ‘culture war’ scam. This has had nothing to do with child protection, but rather an emotional trigger to elicit outrage, which their messaging machine can then focus on to fire up their base with some misrepresentation of Democratic policy.
The MAGA line is that sexual abuse as a problem is caused by “corrupt Hollywood” or “liberal theology.” No so. The truth is, it is woven into every part of society, and it has no political allegiance. It is as prevalent in Evangelical Southern Baptist Churches as it is in the Catholic Church, as it is in the care home system. Law firm Lieff Cabraser notes:
Lieff Cabraser is investigating reports of widespread child abuse in evangelical churches, Southern Baptist churches, and so-called Mega Churches. Nearly 400 Southern Baptist leaders, from youth pastors to top ministers, have pleaded guilty or been convicted of sex crimes against more than 700 victims since 1998, according to a recent investigation by The Houston Chronicle and The San Antonio Express-News. Superstar pastors like Bill Hybels and Andy Savage have been forced to resign over allegations of misconduct. The New York Times also published a recent exposé on the “sexual abuse crisis” at Evangelical churches.
Wider sexual abuse has long been prevalent in politics, too. In a report featured by PBS on March 25th of this year, they report:
Since 2017, The Associated Press has catalogued at least 147 state lawmakers across 44 states who have been accused of sexual harassment or sexual misconduct.
So my advice to the MAGA fake advocates of child protection is to consider not throwing stones in glass houses. The critical protection of our children will never be best served by those wanting to use their abuse for the sexual gratification of adults as a political weapon. It is abhorrent and unconscionable behaviour from those who should and do know better. If these political ghouls want to put an end to this cancer in society, they should be funding the hard-pressed units tasked with investigating these crimes. They are grossly underfunded, as are the support agencies that are left picking up the pieces of broken young lives. Imagine if we funded this as well as we are funding ICE to abduct people from American streets.
As the National Children’s Alliance notes:
CHILD ABUSE IS DEADLY
In 2022, an estimated 1,990 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States, a number consistently on the rise over the previous five years.i Boys have a higher child fatality rate at 3.26 per 100,000 compared to girls at 2.25. African-American child fatalities (6.37 per 100,000) is over three times greater than that of white children (1.99), and nearly four times greater than Hispanic children (1.68).
CHILD ABUSE IS COSTLY TO SOCIETY
In 2022, an estimated 1,990 children died from abuse and neglect in the United States, a number consistently on the rise over the previous five years.i Boys have a higher child fatality rate at 3.26 per 100,000 compared to girls at 2.25. African-American child fatalities (6.37 per 100,000) is over three times greater than that of white children (1.99), and nearly four times greater than Hispanic children (1.68).
This piece only scratches the surface of the problem; the issue extends far beyond a short-lived political narrative or political crocodile tears. This is a tragic societal epidemic in which legislators are feeding our children to the wolves. It’s disgusting to watch the President of the United States and his Attorney General attempt to hide the truth from the American people.
If you would like to help address this epidemic, you can support the vital work that RAINN does by clicking here to make a donation. If you would like to help the National Children’s Alliance, you can click here to donate.
My friends, this has been a challenging piece for me to write because it’s a personal one. You never have to agree with what I write, but rest assured, it is always delivered to you with passion and built on a foundation of fact-checked truth.
If I might add one thing to your brilliant and heartfelt article, it is that a child who was sexually abused is for ever imprinted by the touch, smell and feel of her abuser. The true crime is that that child will seek out dangerous situations that mimic the crime against her/him because it will forever be linked with her understanding of sex. I’m so glad your daughter had plenty of therapy. And I’m glad she had you, a loving parent, to help her understand what happened. But I remain infuriated that the crime committed against me is still very much with me, and has colored or ruined every sexual relationship of my life. I am 70 years old and still trying to figure it all out. But I can tell you that based on his words, his expressions, his legal history, there is no doubt in my mind that Donald Trump is a pedophile.
So sorry for your daughter and your family to have gone through this. Thank you for sharing your personal story.