Jeanette
Website
Why did the raid happen?
A lot of people assume that statutory agencies such as the Police and Social Services are doing their job as they should and if they intervene in a family and take away the children, then the children must have been "at risk". In many cases this is true.
However, others know, injustice happens and it doesn't just happen in the area of criminal charges, but also where children are concerned. You only have to switch on the news to read about Angela Canning and other mothers who were accused of killing their babies who in fact died of natural causes or read about cases of children taken away from their parents for apparently inexplicable reasons.
It is a sad fact of life in this day and age, that false allegations and accusations are a part of society. Sometimes the Police get the wrong person and sometimes the courts get it wrong.
Allegations are made all the time, some are true, some mistaken and some false and malicious.
Reasons why people make false allegations
I wrote down some of the reasons I feel that people made allegations about us and some of the general circumstances that can lead to this phenomenon. However there is an excellent article about the whole subject of false allegations on the FACT website. In it Mrs. Jensen explains the reasons for false allegations much better than I can.
Click here www.factuk.org/articles/alternative-view.htm
The Police and Social Services
have a pivotal role in the way allegations effect the people who make them, the people they are about and others around them.
The method of Trawling in Child Abuse investigations is widespread. This means that the normal method of criminal investigation is turned on its head. Instead of starting with a crime, and trying to find who did it, they start with an individual and try and find out what they did. They do this by advertisement and the "Bush Telegraph" that is by asking each person they contact for details of any others they are in contact with. In the case of our family, this resulted in almost all of the young people who had lived here being contacted because of the strong links forged here, which continued even after they stopped contacting us at home.
The police often ask leading questions, to fit in with the allegations that have already been made by others. They talk openly about Compensation. It is possible to get Criminal Injuries Compensation even if the alleged abuser is acquitted in court.
Social Services have a duty to protect children. If they are told of allegations they have to investigate. However this results in the situation of being regarded as "guilty until proven innocent" because the children (and in our case vulnerable adults) are taken away and other children in contact with you are also regarded as "at risk" and their parents have to tread very carefully.
If a police officer works in Child Protection they want to protect children or they would not have taken the job. They come across many incidents of child abuse, they meet the children and their abusers. They are involved in securing the convictions.
When they sit and listen to allegations, often very many in the case of large investigations such as the one involving our family, they build up a picture of you as an abuser, often long before they meet you. They have very little reason to disbelieve what they are told. They don't look at it as "Well let's look and find out if it is true." They believe it. Then they meet you. They expect you to say it is untrue and they believe that your friends and family are "in denial".
What happened to us
From time to time from 1989 to 1998, there were some allegations made about Jeanette, Karen and others in the family. All of these were investigated, and no case to answer was found. However, there were (and are) those in the Police and Social Services, and also those who made the allegations and their families, who believed that the "Truth" was never uncovered. Others simply felt the family was too big.
When one of Jeanette's adopted daughters X, began to work for a journalist. She told him of her grievances. He decided to write an article about the family. He visited many family members, X gave him the addresses and some of those he visited gave him further contacts. Almost all of those he visited gave hostile views of us, those who he met who were not, he by then found hard to believe. His article was turned down by the paper he hope would publish it. So he passed it on to the Police. Both the Police and Social Services now felt justified in beginning a large-scale combined operation. They re-interviewed all of Richard Smith's contacts and found others.
Although many, including many regular visitors to the house, said that there was nothing wrong here, they did not give their views weight. others contacted the Police and offered to be interviewed but they declined the opportunity. Still others, including the professionals such as the children's teachers, doctors and social contacts were not even contacted.
The Police had their moment of glory. When the TV news reported their operation and people believed they had brought to justice the worst of society - Child abusers.
At this point the nightmare began for the children and young people who they claimed to have "rescued".
What happened next? See 1998 and all that
Home What is the Roberts family? History House of Tomorrow
1998 and all that (the raid) Who's at home now?
Injunction Latest News Great News! Why the raid? Religious bit