DAVID HENCKE
Westminster, Whitehall and Berkhamsted village news and views
Exclusive:Honoured by the Queen, mugged by David Cameron
National child abuse hero Graham Wilmer: Picture reproduced courtesy Rory Wilmer Photography
His citation reads:“For services to survivors and victims of abuse.”
The letter from the Cabinet Office says the award was made on the recommendation of the Prime Minister.
But what the Prime Minister gives, the PM also takes away.
Just as he receives his award – a pinnacle of achievement and recognition for a sexually abused kid who now helps others – the government is stripping him of any funding which virtually means his operation has no cash after September. The full story can be seen on Exaro News - http://www.exaronews.com/articles/5010/mbe-for-head-of-project-helping-sex-victims-but-funding-is-axed
Funny that. Cash is no longer available just at the point when the Met Police investigations from Operation Yewtree ( Jimmy Savile and friends); Operation Fernbridge and Fairbank ( 300 leads into mainly gay sexual abusers of young boys) and Operation Torva ( just beginning to look at the Roman Catholic Salesian school order ( 30 or more victims, 20 or more priests and teachers under investigation) started by Graham Wilmer himself are bringing forward unprecedented numbers of people who need support. The Met Police has no money for supporting victims. And the extension of the North Wales investigation under Operation Pallial, is also bringing to light new victims, though to her credit Theresa May, the home secretary, has offered Home Office support to those victims.
How different is David Cameron whose Downing Street press office told me that he had put aside £10.5m over three years – and it turned out this was for rape crisis centres.
As Graham put it himself: “It is really time that David Cameron got his act together over funding to counsel people who have been sexually abused as children. You can’t have the police encouraging people to come forward as child abuse victims and then have no system of support for them.”
And then there is Liberal Democrat Home Office junior minister Jeremy Browne. All he could offer was a weasely worded letter to Mr Wilmer suggesting he contact the Merseyside police commissioner, Jane Kennedy for some cash. But I can’t see how Merseyside police should be expected to fund counselling for three major national child abuse investigations. I think they have a few other matters to deal with.
Jeremy Browne and David Cameron describe child sexual abuse as an abhorrent crime. Obviously not abhorrent enough to find any money to support what looks like thousands of victims.
Graham Wilmer The Lantern Project 168 Seabank Rd, Wallasey, Wirral CH451HG UK Phone: 0151 630 6956 mobile: 07866 508094 http://www.grahamwilmer.org.ukhttp://www.lanternproject.org.uk http://www.ctruk.org.uk
What a society we live in
There is so much wealth in our country and those that have the most are adding to it over and over again while the man in the street and our children have to endure cuts under the veil of austerity which they played no part in causing.
I read an article in the Daily Mail on the 15th June, and even putting one side that paper’s track record of inaccuracy, Tony Blair alone is reputed to be worth between £80 and £100 million. What can one person need such wealth for, with the potential to earn a great deal more in the near future.Is it morally acceptable that a public official whom the public elect should be able to turn that privilege in to the ability to command millions in earning power ?
Blair and a hundred other individuals alone could chose to fund without noticing the difference a programme of support to victims for many a year
putting back in to the public arena a small part of what they’ve piggy-backed out of it
When the tax avoidance routes are closed(although we won’t hold our breath on that one) perhaps David Cameron could put his money where his mouth is and honour his statement made days after the Savile revelations last year that ” a true measure of our society is how we treat our most vulnerable” . He actually went on to say that child sexual abuse is the most heinious crime of all.
THEN TREAT IT AS SUCH
Only you and your Government,Mr.Cameron,have the power to sort this once and for all