Child Protection
The case coincided with several other cases in the United Kingdom which highlighted possible problems with the efficiency of child protection services. The whole country was said by Prime Minister Gordon Brown to be appalled at the crime and the many chances there may have been for the abuse — which continued for 28 years — to be stopped.
The father was said by his sister-in-law to have been motivated in part by wanting to keep for himself the money paid to him by the state in child support for the numerous children. There were said to have been 150 opportunities for authorities to notice what was happening. For several months the girls tried to pay their father to stop raping them by giving him £100 a month. They gave him whisky, hoping his drinking would lead to his death. They had called ChildLine, but were not reassured that their children would not be taken from them, which their father had said would happen, so they ended the call.
Read more about this topic: Sheffield Incest Case
Famous quotes containing the words child and/or protection:
“It is through attentive love, the ability to ask “What are you going through?” and the ability to hear the answer that the reality of the child is both created and respected.”
—Mary Field Belenky (20th century)
“Men speak of natural rights, but I challenge any one to show where in nature any rights existed or were recognized until there was established for their declaration and protection a duly promulgated body of corresponding laws.”
—Calvin Coolidge (1872–1933)