[Graybeard]

Rascal ...this thread tells the story of a personal tragedy (yours ?). I am unsure, apart from sympathy, how you wish others to respond.

Sex crime, pedophila in particular is a dark (dimly perceived) crime.

This is my example.

A young girl was at a party, drunk, went to bed late. Lets call her Anne. This girl is man-wise, very attractive and experienced altho only 18. The house was her friends' Father's house.

The Father entered the room late at night, after the party, after every one else had gone to sleep, and made inappropiate advances. The girl resisted successfully. No one else was aware of the incident.

The girl did not like to tell her friend (Bee) about the father (understandable ... Step 1 into the darkness) She did tell another more distant girlfriend of the incident.

Bee's Boyfriend (big bloke .. 24) was once accused by Anne of making advances ... this was all part of weeny boppers gossip .. not to be taken seriously ... .(truly)

Just before New Years Eve the distant friend falls out with Anne and tells Bee about her father.

The New years eve party was at my house. Unfortunately I was on shift until midnite. When I get home, everybody is in tears. All these girls and their mothers.

I try to find out what is going on. Bee's boyfriend in drunken anger has denigrated and abused Anne for telling lies, telling everybody she had once said the same about him, then jumped off my third floor balcony onto the loading dock roof 2 metres below. No one knows where he is or why he did this .... except that he went onto the roof. Its pissing down rain, slippery and dangerous, a great way to spend the first hour of the new year. I search the wet corrugated iron roofs stretching endlessly. I find him, he is argumentive, big and violent. Eventually i get him back to the unit and force him to leave.

Everybody is distressed and in tears ...... and things have been said, and accusations levelled, that will cause great change to this little social circle in the year 2008.

But not for a certain person ... the Father. No blame for him ... he does not have to deal with the damage and destruction he has caused .... only us .. we have to pick up all the pieces and put it all together again.

The big fella is actually my friend .. we have drunk many times together. of course I had to forgive him and allow him back ... he lives at my place three-four days a week. The girls have to sort out their new outlooks to one another. We have all aged thru the incident

This is why I call it a dark crime .... Its effects are destructive far into the future ... but its cause is very rarely revealed and exposed.

greg.