Julia

No it's not another Orwell based screed, but I wanted to see if I could sneak a reference in anyway.

Instead it's this story, via JuliaM: do read it for yourself. It's heartbreaking and sickmaking. Aside from the suicide, which might have any number of long term causes, a man was indeed treated as essentially guilty before any reasonable process of investigation was carried out.

This complaint alone would have been enough for me -or anyone working with or near "vulnerable people" to lose my job and never be able to work in education again, since it would have appeared on the enhanced CRB check all such workers have to go through.

Think about this world we're living in. You can lose jobs, opportunities, have the police record your details, be bailed without any due process, simply for being completely and utterly innocent.

You can lose your job and never get it back purely on the basis of a false, unsubstantiated complaint. And you become, on the way, just another automatic suspect on the DNA database. Your DNA routinely searched whenever a crime happens, just in case you did it. There is also no possibility of a mistake, obviously.

Let us also not think that the police believe in the concept of innocence. A year or so ago a top policemen said on Radio 5 that he had found that people wrongly arrested were often guilty of other things, so they should definitely have their DNA recorded.

Just when - and why - did the concept of innocence disappear?

Let's just repeat that earlier point though, because it's worth it: you do not need to be guilty of anything to lose your job and have your life ruined.


"If that's justice, I'm a banana."