In Mercury stories concerning David Traynor, I have not read which Police force successfully pursued him for the legal possession of the 1880 document of naughty Victorian stories, ‘The Pearl’, which can be purchased in book stores, read in libraries, purchased via the Internet or downloaded for free. The long-serving Clarence Alderman has now been found guilty of possessing child exploitation material and placed on the sex offender’s register.
Why? There was a passage in ‘The Pearl’ describing sex by a man with a 12 year old girl, but that was the age of consent in England in 1880. Standards have changed and what was legal then is now seen as abuse. To graffiti this historic literature with today’s legal brush is quite bizarre.
To destroy a local politician’s life and honour over the possession of legal literature is a very dark form of abuse, as it makes a mockery of all moral standards and any legal protection that Australian citizens may expect under the law. No one can expect protection in an environment of fanatical zeal. Are children really safer now? In fact, in this instance the law has become the criminal and the courts used as a witch hunt that is no more than a fantasy show-trial and the burning an individual’s reputation at the stake in public.
If it was the Federal Police who drove the case, we will be forced to ask if this abuse of the justice system was in any way the expression of political agendas. A couple of years ago we saw another witch hunt and attempted burning of the highly respected Australian artist Bill Henson, with the Prime Minister of the day expressing vitriolic disgust at the works removed from an art gallery. Henson was not charged and the works were returned for exhibition, but the episode has revealed that we live in a extremely hostile environment when it come to children. Such extreme behaviour is not healthy for kids, or for Australian culture, as it creates an environment of fear that is more a’kin to fascism.
In this extreme legal environment we find a 38 year old father, Jonathon Sheldon Fudge of Margate, who was found guilty of assaulting two young girls in a school classroom, by touching their bottoms. He stated in court that he may have brushed against them but did not touch them. Did the children see him touch them? No. Did any adult see him touch them? No. There was no actual assault resulting in bodily injury. There was no sexual interference involved. At the same time in Tasmania 200 men who had sex with a 12 year old child prostitute are not being named or pursued by the law.
In this “looking glass” world that we are creating, real crime is now going unpunished, while perceived crimes are pursued to the hilt, even a crime which had to be invented. The real losers will be children, as who will now believe that the sex offenders register is real? Many men will be driven away from having anything to do with children and that can lead to another form of abuse. It is called neglect. How can children grow up strong and healthy if adults live in fear of being anywhere near them?
Unfortunately, much of this fear agenda is driven at the Federal level of politics, by elected representatives who believe that they must control the Internet, instead of investing in education to empower individuals to discern content, decide what is appropriate and choose quality. Many children have shown great adaptability in finding ways around Internet filters.
We cannot stop children from going into churches and reading some rather horrendous passages in the Bible, which include the abuse and murder of children. If Abraham were alive today, the courts would take a rather scathing view of the near murder his son on an altar with a knife. Is there any worse form of abuse than the murder of a child? We can, however, educate people to understand the historic context of those passages and why we would not find some behaviours very acceptable now.
If we can step beyond fear and pursue education, then when a real crime is found in life, or on the Internet, we may find that people are prepared to report it. If anyone sees a crime on the Internet now, they may quickly move on and hope to high Heaven that the Federal Police don’t come knocking at their door seeking to fish through the hard drive for deleted material, as happened with David Traynor’s stolen laptop.
We can only hope and trust that the pending appeal will completely exonerate Alderman Traynor, who broke no laws and was found guilty of a fictitious crime. A successful appeal should see a further hearing, for compensation and the complete restoration of his reputation.
Comment in the Mercury
From experience, it has been the Federal Police who rock up with a warrant and who do the search. Thankfully in my experience, the information they had was incorrect and I hope the person who sent the information to the Feddies is told that. In my case, it was to do with one web link that to me looked like one of those which comes with that ruddy junk mail always pouring in….but not one I had visited. It is so easy to be trapped these days, particularly with emails. While it is not illegal to have pornography in general, it would be interesting for him to know which of his ‘friends’ took offense with regard to The Pearl, which seems to be regarded as a ‘classic’. :-S Posted by: watcher of Hobart 1:40pm Friday
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