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Twisted tales of abuse
Some kids pressured to make false sex
allegations by parent waging custody war
By LORI COOLICAN, EDMONTON SUN, January 20, 2004
In the bitter world of child custody battles, some parents are
coaching their own kids to make false sexual abuse complaints
- with disastrous results for everyone, experts say.
"We're very concerned and very conscious of allegations that
have inklings that there may be custody and access (issues),"
says Staff Sgt. Darren Eastcott of the Edmonton police Zebra
Child Protection Centre, which investigates allegations of
child sex abuse.
"When we are aware of them, we're very concerned about that
and very careful of them. If there's a custody or access
(dispute) ... there's a little bit of a brighter red light on
it," he said. "There's nothing worse than to have somebody
falsely accused of these kind of things."
Police don't keep statistics on how many abuse complaints
relate to custody battles. But Eastcott said his unit
typically encounters such situations a couple of times each
month.
The centre even employs a full-time child welfare worker who
specializes in custody and access disputes. Investigators have
encountered cases where the same child has made allegations
multiple times and investigators concluded they weren't being
honest, Eastcott said.
"Parents should certainly not be involving kids in custody
disputes. That's not fair emotionally to the child, let alone
the former spouse," said Karen Smith, director of the Sexual
Assault Centre of Edmonton.
"I just have no patience for that. There are so many people
who have legitimate sexual abuse issues that it's not fair to
waste the police or child welfare's time investigating.
However ... the numbers of false allegations are very small."
Cops can charge people with public mischief for fabricating a
complaint to police, but it's not always worthwhile when a
child is caught in the middle, Eastcott said.
"The police do not want to continue kids being used as pawns
in custody proceedings."
Of 725 child sex abuse complaints investigated by Edmonton
police in 2000, 2001 and 2002, only 160 - about 22% -resulted
in criminal charges being laid. But that doesn't mean the
other 565 cases were all false allegations, Eastcott said.
"For example, if you have a victim who is too distraught and
is not able to participate in the court case, sometimes we
either stay the charges or suspend files until they're ready."
Some cases are resolved through mediation, while in others
police can't gather enough evidence to make a conviction
likely, so they don't consider it worthwhile to put a child
through the pain of testifying, he said.
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Youth Parliament Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories
The Legislative Assembly of the Northwest Territories supports the
right and responsibility of our youth to be involved in our democracy.
A great example for all provincial, territorial legislative
assemblies and the Parliament of Canada
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Moral relativism - a catastrophe for kids
National Post, Elizabeth Nickson, Friday, January 16, 2004
The smart young are, of course, already trending conservative -- they've grown up with the hash my generation has
made of love and marriage, and they have soldiered their way through the nonsense we have made of education. But
way-left boomers turning right in middle age? Come on. But it's true.
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