The findings in the Labour party sexual harassment case have once again exposed just how easy it is for allegations of “sexual assault” to be seriously weaponized in a whole variety of different and highly damaging ways and for a whole variety of different reasons. From a disgruntled partner in the midst of a divorce or separation, who alleges the other party is sexually abusing the children, to the morning after remorse and reconsideration in the cold light of day, for what might well have been simply some loose behaviour.
Men really are up against it when it comes to allegations of sexual impropriety. It seems that at the first sign of an allegation, innocent until proven guilty flies out the window and quite the opposite comes into effect: Prove you didn’t do it.
Many reputations and families have been destroyed by false allegations of sexual abuse or misconduct and there’s no clawing it back once the damage is done.
This is not about condoning bad behaviour or suggesting all men are squeaky clean and that there aren’t some criminal ratbags out there. However, I’m mindful of a senior social worker I heard interviewed on radio some years ago about this very subject. She was quite happy to declare that she’d prefer to see ten innocent men go to jail than have just one guilty one go free.
That’s at best woolly thinking from a purportedly highly trained and qualified professional; one who at the time advised the Family Court on matters of sexual abuse of children. It’s chilling to think that something so foreign to natural justice could occur here but it has and it does.
And so it is, with a background of this kind of woolly thinking, that an incident (or incidents) of some kind took place at a Labour Party event. Fueled perhaps by a bit too much alcohol, some over-exuberance and (we now know from the inquiry) some previous history, an in-depth inquiry has found insufficient evidence to warrant any further action.
Labour’s political opponents were quick to try and capitalize on this event for their own political gain, and they did so on rumour alone. They are left standing there with the proverbial spattered all over them. Sadly, the more of this kind of nonsense that happens, the less likely we are going to be to take notice of the real cases when they crop up. A bit like the boy who cried wolf once too often.
The fact that we males walk the streets with the equipment to commit such an offence, doesn’t automatically mean we will do so. The onus of proof remains as important in cases of a sexual nature as it does in all of them, and those in politics who are wise will stay focussed on their jobs and not seek cheap sensationalism as a weapon to demean their opponents.
God knows this government makes enough mistakes on a daily basis to keep a competent opposition well in front but so far, they seem to be missing the target way more than they’re hitting it.