Displaying items by tag: abuse

Figures based on safeguarding assessment data from local authorities reported children in England being abused due to belief in witchcraft has risen by 34% in three years. Abuse is driven by believing the child is possessed by demons or the devil. Families experiencing some kind of misfortune, such as parental mental health or experiencing exclusion because of poverty, try to make sense of their experience by believing that a spiritual realm has an impact on what happens here. They treat children as scapegoats for the misfortune that they are experiencing, and by punishing them they believe they are expelling the spiritual evil. Some UK belief-based child abuse is linked to child-trafficking where children are taken through different practices like witchcraft, juju, and black magic to silence them - as a form of control.

Welfare payments are turning the clock back to the 1950s and allowing abusers to control family finances, MPs say. Under Universal Credit (UC), payments are made to one person per household, often leaving abuse victims and their children dependent, a report by the Work and Pensions Committee said. One abuse survivor feared the new system could leave her and her children with ‘nothing for weeks’. UC aims to simplify the benefits and tax credits system with a single monthly payment. Claimants provide details of one bank account for payments. Although they can request split payments, Job Centres currently only offer them in ‘very exceptional circumstances’. Christian Labour MP Frank Field said men and women pay taxes as individuals, and should each have an independent income. People living with abuse can see their entire monthly income, including money meant for their children, go into their abusive partner's bank account. The system makes it harder for victims to leave an abusive relationship.

Only a week after Mike Overd and Michael Stockwell's public order convictions were overturned at Bristol Crown Court, another preacher has been acquitted of a public order offence charge. Andrew Frost had been accused of causing harassment, alarm and distress to two men in a homosexual relationship. In March, he had been preaching on the consequences of sin in Nottingham city centre, quoting Luke 13:1-5 and Matthew 15:19. As he did so, two men holding hands walked by, and shouted abusive comments at Andrew. He continued to preach from Scripture.

In January Ofsted reported that the Meadows Primary School in Bristol was ‘inadequate’ and that ‘racism and bullying have not been dealt with quickly enough.’ This is just one of many incidents where teachers have been found to use bullying techniques and language. Bullying also occurs in school playgrounds. Kind, loving, and funny 12-year-old Matthew was found hanged after being bullied at school. He is just one of many youngsters suffering bullying at school. A BBC File on 4 investigation found that more than 20,000 allegations of abuse by care home workers against the elderly and vulnerable have been made in the last three years. Of the claims 12,000 were of neglect, more than 3,000 were physical abuse, 2,400 were psychological abuse, 400 were sexual abuse. The vast majority related to the care of elderly people in their homes, most aged over 80. See and

Rt Rev’d Andrew Watson, the Bishop of Guildford, has said that he is a survivor of ‘appalling activities’ perpetrated by John Smyth QC, a former Iwerne Trust chairman facing multiple allegations of abuse. Bishop Andrew said, ‘It was abuse perpetrated by a misguided, manipulative and dangerous man, tragically playing on the longing of his young victims to live godly lives.’ An investigation by Channel Four found that both the Iwerne Trust and Winchester College had learned of allegations of abuse by Mr Smyth in the 1980s but failed to report them to the police. One man told the programme that some boys had been beaten so badly by Mr Smyth that they had to wear nappies to staunch the bleeding. When one of the men tried to take his own life, the Iwerne Trust launched an investigation. It compiled a confidential report in 1982, which described the beatings of 22 young men: eight of them received about 14,000 strokes. A statement from the Archbishop of Canterbury said: ‘We recognise that many institutions fail catastrophically, but the Church is meant to hold itself to a far, far higher standard and we have failed terribly. For that the Archbishop apologises unequivocally and unreservedly to all survivors.’

The mother of an 11-year-old transgender girl who was bullied at school claims that the school has not done enough to stop the bullying. She said that five months of escalating bullying has had a ‘terrible effect’ on her daughter, who had been physically attacked several times and was regularly abused and insulted. A statement from the school confirmed that a ball-bearing (BB) gun had been fired at a pupil. It added: ‘The matter has been treated very seriously, and the pupil who fired the gun has been permanently excluded. We wish to send a message out to our community that this behaviour is completely unacceptable and will result in removal from our school. We have enlisted the support of a national organisation to help us further with our training of staff and pupils and support for our transgender pupils. We have met with the parents of the pupil to apologise and to see what we can do further as a school.’