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All citizens of this country are entitled to the protection of the law
in times of need and with some exceptions the law serves them well. Sorry,
did I say all citizens? My mistake, because disabled citizens appear to
be subject to a different law.
According to a recent study by Mencap, Respond and Voice, fourteen hundred
cases of sexual abuse against learning disabled people go to court each
year, yet only a paltry, disgraceful, six per cent result in conviction.
The reason used as a defence and conveniently accepted by the legal profession,
is that the abuser frequently doesn't realise the person they abused was
learning disabled. Yeah right! That's not a defence: it's the motive.
These inadequates target vulnerable people, often working in care settings,
in order to carry out their vile, depraved attacks.
The abused person is badly let down at each stage; by the abuser, by
their so-called protectors and finally by the law itself.
In these fast-changing times with new laws being drafted and implemented
on a weekly basis, the law-makers and the legal profession are hiding
behind the Sexual Offences Act of 1956.
It is convenient for them to still use language like 'defective' when
describing someone with a learning disability. It confirms their misguided,
but firmly entrenched beliefs, that disabled people are second-class citizens
who are not worth worrying about.
A fortnight ago, a so-called 'care' worker was allowed to walk scot-free
from court, presumably to continue his oh-so-caring career. He had lowered
a profoundly disabled man into a scalding hot bath and did not report
the incident until the following day.
| Eventually, and after barely mediocre hospital treatment,
the man died. The learned judge summed up by declaring that the carer
had had a "momentary lapse of concentration". A momentary
lapse of concentration? Isn't that when you blink? It doesn't go anywhere
near describing what really happened to this vulnerable person. |
“This widespread discrimination in all areas
of our lives will continue because we do not have rights backed
up by law”
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The Disability Rights Commission seem to inhabit a different planet to
the rest of us. They are 'astounded' and 'surprised' that discrimination
against disabled people is so widespread.
Good grief! Where have they been? All they had to do was ask. Discrimination
is rife and insidious, all-pervading and excused.
You get the likes of Simon Hoggart writing in The Guardian that official
statistics on disabled people are grossly exaggerated, his reason being
that he does not see any travelling on the buses and in trains.
Well, I have news for him. The reason he can't see any disabled people
- or, what he probably meant, wheelchair users - was because they aren't
on the trains Mr Hoggart travels on.
Some are, of course, like the disabled woman who was recently sexually
abused in a guard's van on a journey in Essex.
Maybe Mr Hoggart should ask why, in this day and age, certain citizens
(nearly nine-million people) are only allowed a second-class service.
This widespread discrimination in all areas of our lives will continue
because we do not have rights backed up by law. These so-called rights,
in truth are nothing more then 'asks'.
Some of the recommendations of the Disability Rights Task Force will
only be implemented by the government in 2004. These recommendations were
made in 1999, so obviously the powers that be are in no particular hurry.
Anyway, what's the rush, we are only second-class citizens.
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