The celebrity witch-hunt goes on ...

[sir_arthur_strebe-grebling]

Today, Paul Gambaccini has been told there is no evidence against him and he faces no charges, after a year on bail (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29574077). This follows similar treatment of Freddie Starr, Jimmy Tarbuck and Jim Davidson and half-a-dozen others.

Alison Saunders, the feminazi head of the Crown Prosecution Service, has said she will continue to pursue these pointless cases but surely she cannot continue her campaign of destroying the lives of 'celebrity' men and must be replaced by a more reasonable person?

[al**bear]

always been rumours about our Gambo

[cee-dee]

A DJ who used to be on our local radio station told me about Gambo many years back.

Thing is, that DJ is also facing a trial soon.........

[electric*mayhem*band]

Burn the Witch, Burn the Witch !

[cee-dee]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29581759

[saasher2012]

I do think it's unfair that they name them especially as in some of these cases the charges have been dropped because of insufficient evidence , but by today's method their whole life has been turned upside down & for what? Even if totally innocent & it's proven the seed of doubt is cast, it's very wrong !

[bankhaunter]

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@sir_arthur_strebe-grebling wrote:

Today, Paul Gambaccini has been told there is no evidence against him and he faces no charges, after a year on bail (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29574077). This follows similar treatment of Freddie Starr, Jimmy Tarbuck and Jim Davidson and half-a-dozen others.

Alison Saunders, the feminazi head of the Crown Prosecution Service, has said she will continue to pursue these pointless cases but surely she cannot continue her campaign of destroying the lives of 'celebrity' men and must be replaced by a more reasonable person?

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Feminazi?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p01m7gy5

Perhaps you would like the police to never investigate such crimes just in case one of the people they investigate happens to be a celebrity.

Or should celebrities get special dispensation and only priests, teachers and the man on the Clapham omnibus be investigated?

[sir_arthur_strebe-grebling]

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@bankhaunter wrote:

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Perhaps you would like the police to never investigate such crimes just in case one of the people they investigate happens to be a celebrity.

Or should celebrities get special dispensation and only priests, teachers and the man on the Clapham omnibus be investigated?

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Please don't put words into my mouth. I think that anyone should be investigated, regardless of who they are, if there is evidence to do so. But Alison Saunders' tactic is to get well-known men arrested and hope that the publicity will bring forward someone who is prepared to testify against the 'celebrity'.

With most of her fishing expeditions no evidence has been found - we can't count silly rumours, such as Al and CD repeat above - despite keeping many well-known men on bail for a year or more. She should stop this despicable tactic, or be replaced as Head of the CPS by a sensible lawyer.

[tommy.irene]

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@sir_arthur_strebe-grebling wrote:

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@bankhaunter wrote:

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Please don't put words into my mouth. I think that anyone should be investigated, regardless of who they are, if there is evidence to do so. But Alison Saunders' tactic is to get well-known men arrested and hope that the publicity will bring forward someone who is prepared to testify against the 'celebrity'.

With most of her fishing expeditions no evidence has been found - we can't count silly rumours, such as Al and CD repeat above - despite keeping many well-known men on bail for a year or more. She should stop this despicable tactic, or be replaced as Head of the CPS by a sensible lawyer.

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I dont think people should be named untill the Police have proof of their crime...She can pick any name and hope people come forward to condem them..

[bankhaunter]

But Alison Saunders' tactic is to get well-known men arrested and hope that the publicity will bring forward someone who is prepared to testify against the 'celebrity'.

Do you have evidence of that or is it just an assertion?

How could anyone be arrested if there was no complaint or evidence to base an arrest on?

[sir_arthur_strebe-grebling]

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@bankhaunter wrote:

But Alison Saunders' tactic is to get well-known men arrested and hope that the publicity will bring forward someone who is prepared to testify against the 'celebrity'.

Do you have evidence of that or is it just an assertion?

How could anyone be arrested if there was no complaint or evidence to base an arrest on?

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I think it's worth quoting a few lines from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-29581759, referred to by CD at #5 above.

Police are arresting suspects of alleged historical sex crimes without sufficient evidence and keeping them on bail too long, a barrister has said.

Geoffrey Robertson QC said if a charge could not be made within three months the case should be dropped.

His comments come after no further action was taken against Paul Gambaccini over historical sex claims.

...

Mr Robertson told the BBC's Radio 4 Today programme that Mr Gambaccini's case was not unique.

He said: "It's a lot of people who are being arrested prematurely, who are being kept on police bail for a year, two years.

"These arrests are completely unnecessary and unlawful. Several of them [the suspects] have committed suicide because of the torment and stress."

Suspects should only be arrested when there is a "reasonable suspicion", he said.

He added that when someone is arrested and later publicly "named and shamed" the "presumption of innocence is turned on its head".

"There has to be some cut off point, because we are seeing people being held for one year or two years, brought into police stations and humiliated every few months, and that is not satisfactory.

"If they can't charge within three months they [the police] have either got to go to a judge and get permission, or drop the case," he said.

[tommy.irene]

Then its about time this one is charged..

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/elderly-irish-priest-accused-sexually-4394198

[bankhaunter]

"If they can't charge within three months they [the police] have either got to go to a judge and get permission, or drop the case," he said.

I wouldn't disagree that cases should be dealt with more quickly but that's something that could apply to many cases not just the ones under discussion and there shouldn't be a time limit just uneccesary delays avoided.

It's not just celebrities that have the possibility of prosecution hanging over them for a long time, why, for example, does it take the police several months to examiner a suspect's computer?

[i-am-legion-too]

Alison Saunders only became the DPP in Nov.2013.

Investigations into all the four that you name in the OP, Paul Gambaccini, Freddie Starr, Jimmy Tarbuck and Jim Davidson, were already ongoing before the date of her appointment. Even if one agreed with your accusation of celebrity witch-hunt(which I don't), I don't see how you can blame Alison Saunders.

Did anyone really expect her to call a halt to all police inquiries in which celebrities were suspected of a crime?

[i-am-legion-too]

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@tommy.irene wrote:

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I dont think people should be named untill the Police have proof of their crime...She can pick any name and hope people come forward to condem them..

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In your very next post, you seem quite happy for the newspaper article to refer to the Catholic priest by name before he's even been questioned.

I know nothing of the case, so not necessarily disagreeing, just saying...

[tommy.irene]

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@i-am-legion-too wrote:

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@tommy.irene wrote:

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I dont think people should be named untill the Police have proof of their crime...She can pick any name and hope people come forward to condem them..

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In your very next post, you seem quite happy for the newspaper article to refer to the Catholic priest by name before he's even been questioned.

I know nothing of the case, so not necessarily disagreeing, just saying...

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Read the Newspaper report again ..He has been questioned twice before and now his Lawyer said hes not to go back to the Police station..

Oct 07, 2014 10:21 By Neal Keeling............. Canon Mortimer Stanley faces charges in the UK over alleged indecent assaults on Rochdale schoolgirls 10 Shares Share Tweet +1 Email Retired priest Mortimer Stanley A retired priest may have to be extradited to face a string of abuse charges involving schoolgirls. The Crown Prosecution Service has authorised Greater Manchester Police to charge Canon Mortimer Stanley, 82, after numerous complaints by former pupils at a Rochdale school. The clergyman, who is living in Ireland after retiring from St Vincent de Paul RC Church in Norden, was first quizzed by police last year. He is now due to face 17 charges of indecent assault on girls under 14. The allegations involved 10 victims and are said to have taken place between 1977 and 2002. All the victims were pupils at St Vincent's Primary School, which has been historically linked to the parish.

[i-am-legion-too]

Apologies tommy, I meant to write charged not questioned, but noticed too late to edit error.

So wrong word, but same principle applies.

[tommy.irene]

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@i-am-legion-too wrote:

Apologies tommy, I meant to write charged not questioned, but noticed too late to edit error.

So wrong word, but same principle applies.

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But he is not being wronged by the Police....   

He is now due to face 17 charges of indecent assault on girls under 14. The allegations involved 10 victims and are said to have taken place between 1977 and 2002. All the victims were pupils at St Vincent's Primary School, which has been historically linked to the parish.

[al**bear]

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@tommy.irene wrote:

Then its about time this one is charged..

http://www.irishmirror.ie/news/irish-news/elderly-irish-priest-accused-sexually-4394198

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Now Now Tommy

You are just joining in with the anti-Catholic church witchunt,  (according to the Scottish RC church media centre)

They released a strongly worded statement on the continuing demonisation of the Catholic Church in the Scottish Media

The Medias crime, they broke this story,, last week, that the Church had tried to cover up

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/parishioners-kept-dark-priest-suspended-4404825

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The whole area of Lanarkshire has a history of defrocked priests for child abuse (and close ties to Savile & a crtain Glasgow Football Club btw) and was where the infamous Cardinal  O'Brien served as a priest - Throw a dart at this pic from the Parish house in Kilsyth and you'll most likely hit a peadophile

but reporting on these things, are now seen as wrong by the church

[i-am-legion-too]

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@tommy.irene wrote:

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@i-am-legion-too wrote:

Apologies tommy, I meant to write charged not questioned, but noticed too late to edit error.

So wrong word, but same principle applies.

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But he is not being wronged by the Police....   

He is now due to face 17 charges of indecent assault on girls under 14. The allegations involved 10 victims and are said to have taken place between 1977 and 2002. All the victims were pupils at St Vincent's Primary School, which has been historically linked to the parish.

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I wasn't trying to defend this priest, far from it, I hope he is extradited, made to answer the charges and if found guilty, receives the appropriate sentence.

Perhaps in trying to put it across politely, I failed to make my point obvious, so will be more blunt.

Whether priest, pauper, joe average or celeb., all should be treated equally. Therefore, just because in your opinion the evidence against an individual is compelling enough to justify him being named in the press before being charged, how can you argue that celebs shouldn't be named at the same stage of proceedings?

You may not be persuaded by what you read of adverse pre-trial information against a celeb, but others in possession of more facts, may well be convinced that it's justified.