48 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
48 lines
2.0 KiB
Plaintext
PROFESSOR WARNS OF SATAN MANIA DANGERS
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Mail On Sunday 16.09.90 Page 15 - Inset To File MS160990.ASC
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MANY social workers are over-influenced by what they hear at
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professional conferences about abuse, child psychologist Elisabeth
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Newson believes.
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Professor Newson, who acted as consultant in the child abuse
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investigation in Nottingham, said; "Social workers are told at these
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conferences: 'Watch Out, it's coming your way.'
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"So when they get back to their own patch they start seeing signs of
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ritualistic abuse. When you are told something at a conference there
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is a tendency to believe that it must be true."
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Professor Newson, director of Nottingham University's Child
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Development Research Unit, believes there may be a direct link between
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conferences and the current mania for exposing alleged Satanic abuse.
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She said: "Social workers are under pressure to have learned something
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from conferences. People in their department refer to them for advice,
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so they become the expert.
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"The situation is self perpetuating. They come across examples, then
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they are the speaker at the next conference.
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"This means they have a very strong commitment to believing in it -
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their reputation is on the line.
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"Children's evidence must be taken seriously, but that does not mean
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it must be believed without question.
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"There is a danger some social workers are losing perspective. And
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when you find yourself waking a child at 7am to take him away from
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home, then that's losing perspective.
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"But social workers become emeshed in their own beliefs. In order to
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draw children out, they sometimes ask loaded questions which would
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never be accepted in court.
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"They are acting on their own convictions that abuse is taking place.
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"The children may believe they have been involved in ritual abuse. It
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doesn't mean they have. It needs corroborative evidence - and there
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has been no corroboration in these cases."
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