“My body belongs to me and no one can touch it without my permission” is the new “Underwear Rule” launched by the NSPCC to give children an easy to understand position on abuse.

According to the charity around 20% of male and female children of all ages, skin colour, class and religion fall victim to abuse, usually from someone they know and trust, abuse that nearly always goes unreported.

The campaign coincides with the shamefully late publishing of a heavily-redacted version of the 1996 Jillings report into allegations of bestial cruelty – including buggery and assault – at children’s homes in North Wales in the 1970’s and 1980’s, cruelty that is believed to have caused the deaths of at least twelve young people. The report was shelved by the now-defunct Clwyd County Council and attempts to expose the cruelty constrained by the police and social services.

The NSPCC has criticised a Crown Prosecution Service barrister who was prosecuting a 41-year-old man for having sex with a 13-year-old girl and described the girl as “predatory”. The judge in the case also told the defendant, who admitted the offence, that the girl was “predatory, and egging you on” and handed down an eight month suspended prison sentence for breaking the law.

The NSPCC has opined that the language used by the barrister and judge was “completely inappropriate”, and that “a 13-year-old child cannot be complicit in her own abuse”. The Attorney-General is reviewing the case to ascertain whether the sentence, under the circumstances, was too lenient and should be increased. Continue reading →

Health charity Mind has warned that depression caused by money worries has increased by a third in the last year.

The number of calls to their helpline, usually from those who had reached crisis point, increased by 50%, with an increase of 30% in the number that had taken steps to end their lives, had suicidal thoughts or had concerns about a loved one. There were also increases in the acuteness and/or the complexity of problems described.

Those in financial trouble are often unwilling to talk to friends or colleagues about it, for fear of censure, and suffer anxiety and panic attacks as the delay in getting help makes things worse.

Charities that pay their top executives in excess of £100,000 a year risk bringing the sector into disrepute, according to the Charity Commission.

Chairman William Shawcross issued the warning following Daily Telegraph revelations that at least 30 highly-placed charity executives, at such large organisations as the National Trust, Oxfam, Save The Children, Christian Aid, NSPCC, RSPCA, Sheler, Barnardos, WWF-UK and the RSPB enjoyed these high salaries, funded by donors, tax-payers and tax concessions. He made the point that “In these difficult times, when many charities are experiencing shortfalls, trustees should consider whether very high salaries are really appropriate and fair to both the donors and the taxpayers who fund charities”. Continue reading →

Charity campaigner, TV presenter and author Katie Piper, a former model, will be telling visitors to the upcoming office* exhibition the story of the horrific sulphuric acid attack in Golders Green, London 2008 that left her facially disfigured.

The two men responsible for the attack, a boyfriend she met through Facebook who raped and stabbed her, and his accomplice, are currently serving life sentences and the plucky 29-year-old has rebuilt her life, starting the Katie Piper Foundation for burns victims in 2009. Continue reading →

The Natural History Museum has raised questions over its judgement after accepting sponsorship for a photographic exhibition from a company voted by corporate watchdog The Public Eye as having “the most contempt for the environment and human rights” in the world.

The company, Brazilian mining giant Vale, in involved in the building of the Amazon Belo Monte dam, which critics say will destroy some of the environments and the lives of indigenous people living there, both captured in the Genesis photo exhibition at the museum this summer.