Case 1 - Steven:
Steven is a forty-three year old Caucasian from the South East of England. He has been
convicted of sexual assault against a girl aged 8yrs.
Steven has been described as ‘a bit slow’ by his probation officer, is sexually
inexperienced and claims never to have had a girlfriend. He has worked for a
supermarket chain for 21 years. He had recently been promoted to Assistant Manager of a
particular store. He describes his offence as ‘not so serious’ and states that the girl didn’t
mind at the time. The circumstances around this incident involved three children entering
his store when he had been left in sole charge for the first time, one afternoon. The two
girls and one boy who appeared to be a bit older began to look around the shop. Steven
states that he had seen the boy in his shop before and decided to go over and talk to him
as he seemed ‘friendly’ and had spoken to him before. As he went over, He began
chatting to all of the children and noticed that one of the girls (victim) had a shoelace
undone. Steven knelt to tie it for the victim and describes brushing against her leg. The
boy then bought his belongings and left and the girls asked to see some toys. Steven
brought some toys out from the storeroom and stated he had more in the back. He took
the girls into the back and claims that he had thought his victim the prettier of the two
when they had walked into the shop. He sat the girls on top of a freezer unit in the
storeroom and continued to show them toys. When they asked if they could purchase
some items, Steven told them they did not have enough money. He then leant over and
tried to kiss his victim on the lips, but in fact kissing her on the cheek. He then turned her
face towards him and kissed her on the lips. He states that he was sexually aroused at the
time. Following that, he led them to the till whereupon they did not have enough money
for any of the items and they left the shop.
A little while later, his victim returned with a very irate family waiting for Steven outside
the shop. Steven was forced to press the panic alarm. The police arrived and subsequently
arrested him for the offence.
Case 2 - Chris:
Look, where I come from you don’t never hit a woman. I know what it’s like. I didn’t
grow up in no leafy green suburb where no shit goes on and when it does it’s nothing,
know what I mean? I grew up on the street. I lived my life on the streets from when I was
a child. That’s where I learnt my thing. Not from home. Are you kidding me? Home? I
didn’t learn nothing from home. Let me tell you about home right. Home was first thing
in the morning hearing the grunting and grunting next door. Next thing, door open and
he’s out in the kitchen with a bottle in his hand. My so-called ‘step-father’ yeah. Don’t
bother getting dressed. Don’t bother that there’s a fucking kid in the house. Don’t bother
that I shouldn’t be seeing that shit. Next thing she’s out, my mother. Now she looks at
me, she gives a shit. And then it starts. Shouting, screaming, swearing, bosh bosh bosh.
That’s it, what else do you need to know? Every day man, every fucking day.
So no – I do not hit women. Look, me and her we have a thing going on, yeah.
Everything she’s saying about me is bullshit man. I protected her. I defended her honour,
you get me? It was not me it was her ex that was doing all this shit to her. He was the one
that locked her in the house and wouldn’t let her out. He followed her round all over the
place and used to beat on her. I bet she didn’t tell you that. What I did was to protect her.
I bet she didn’t tell you about when we was at the petrol station and the kids are in the car
and he comes up to me, her ex and starts saying all this shit about her and I nutted the
fucker. And yeah, I went to the car and didn’t say nothing and acted normal ‘cause I
didn’t want to freak the kids and did she thank me for it? No. She saw it man, she was
there. She saw how it happened and not even one fucking word of it. Another time yeah,
her daughter was getting bullied by these kids and she couldn’t do fuck about it. So yeah,
one night I go over and see their Dads and had, let’s say, a conversation with them, and it
stopped. Nothing happened. I protected them, I defended them. All the time this shit was
happening.
And then you get the other day. And I go out to a bar and she’s there, fucking flirting
with this guy. And I’m like what the fuck is this and I tell her we’re leaving and she
comes up with some bullshit in the car about he’s this guy or whatever – I don’t give a
fuck who he is. And so it all goes off, after everything I’ve done for that – I won’t
fucking say what she is, a fucking whore. So yeah, I threw her out the car and I never
wanted to fucking see her or her kids again. See how she fucking copes with that. After
everything I fucking done.
Case 3 - Danny:
Danny is a 51 year old, ex-merchant seaman and is currently married to a 34 year old
woman he met in the Philippines. They have a young son who lives with them. The
offence that he has been convicted of dates back some 25 – 30 years when he was
working away at sea for much of the time.
At this time, he was married to his first wife, although he states that he had had a few
affairs. He claims that this was not uncommon for a lifestyle in the merchant navy,
combined with elements of drinking and gambling. He was away from home for much of
the time and this apparently led to his wife also having a protracted affair. She eventually
left him and Danny was devastated. He began drinking heavily and was asked to leave
the navy. He had no home to return to and so went to live with his mother. He suffered
from depression for over ten years, beginning at around this time. He continued to drink
heavily and remained unemployed for some time. Other members of his family would
regularly visit and stay at weekends. He describes his niece (victim) as quite attractive
and mature for her age. He claims she was around 12-13yrs when the abuse started and it
lasted for about 3 years. The victim claims that she was 8 years old when it started and it
lasted approximately 6 years.
Danny describes coming home very drunk from the pub very regularly. He states that on
the occasions of abuse, he would return on a Saturday afternoon. He would often go up to
his room to sleep and would regularly use pornography, masturbating until ejaculation.
He states that on one occasion he asked his niece if she wanted to come upstairs with him
and describes their relationship as close at the time. When in the bedroom, he began to
introduce her to pornography and states that they ‘had a laugh, it was a bit of fun.’ On
one occasion, while drunk, he showed her pornography and they began play-fighting. He
then began to touch her genitals and asked her to touch him. He claims that she consented
fully to this and they later had full sex. This then became a regular occurrence and he
claims that he was in love with her and may have thought of her as his girlfriend. He also
states that he knew it was wrong, but loved her. He would frequently buy her gifts and
take her to shops, spending lots of money on her, explaining that she had to keep quiet
about what was happening, or ‘it would all have to stop.’
He was only reported to police recently, several years after the offences took place. He
claims this was because the victim (now a grown woman) had asked him to purchase a
large, expensive item and he had refused. He states that this is the reason he was reported.
He now has no contact with any of his family.
Case 4 - Barry:
Barry is a 57 year old male who has a history of offending behaviour, including sexual
offences commencing from the age of 13yrs. He is presently serving a life sentence for
murder and has completed 14 years of this. He has been refused parole on 3 previous
occasions due to a requirement for further treatment programmes related to his sexual
offending. He has previously considered attempting a referral to a therapeutic community
although this has not been followed up. His PNC record indicates numerous violent
offences, the most serious of these being murder. He also has a pattern of juvenile
offending which includes several counts of indecent exposure, indecent assault (x3),
several public order offences and around 8 acquisitive offences – including both theft and
burglary. His adult offences include 13 counts of indecent exposure, 9 counts of indecent
assault, 1 count of rape and 3 offences listed as ‘fraud and kindred offences.’
Barry was raised in a house with his mother, step-father, two sisters and a half brother (all
younger). As a child, Barry remembers going shopping with his mother and peeking at
women changing in the changing rooms. He also recalls playing with his younger siblings
and their group of friends and reports that a small group would engage in sexual activities
with one another. He reports being between the age of 9 and 15yrs while this was
occurring and his siblings were between 2 and 4 years younger, as were their friends. He
recalls engaging in penetrative sexual acts with both boys and girls and describes this as
‘games you play when you’re young.’ He does report also engaging in these activities
with his brother and sister when the friends were not there. He has disclosed this
behaviour while in prison for this charge although it has been denied by his siblings.
Barry describes himself as heterosexual and was married twice and has two children of
his own with his second wife. He describes finding relationships challenging and the
victim of his index offence was the ex-partner of his first wife, who was also a friend of
his. He has no contact with his children.
Barry has had limited engagements with psychological and psychiatric services over the
course of his life and has received varying diagnoses and differing levels of support. He
has received a number of adjudications in prison and is not currently on medication. He
has stated that he is ready to engage with interventions.
Case Study - Michael:
Michael is a twenty-eight year old man from South London. He has a high level of sexual
knowledge and terminology and claims he lost his virginity at age 12yrs to two girls aged
16yrs and 17 yrs during fully consensual sex. It has been claimed that he may have some
involvement in the sex industry, although he has constantly denied this. He has used
many different forms of sexual stimulation and claims regular masturbatory fantasies
involving adult women.
He currently denies any knowledge of events that took place at the time of his offence
and reports only what he assumes or has heard from witness and victim accounts. He
states that he has had a disrupted childhood, but refuses to elaborate any further on this.
He regularly smokes cannabis and drinks alcohol. He states that on the day of the
offence, he was feeling low in mood and had been for some time. A friend arrived at his
house and together they drank very large quantities of alcohol and smoked a great deal of
cannabis. His friend then suggested they took a train to another part of London. He then
states that he can recall very little of what happened until he was in the police station later
that day. Upon leaving the train however, he does remember losing his friend and seeing
two girls in school uniform walking along the street. He then proceeded to follow the
girls in his intoxicated state and they report a man walking behind them ‘very closely,
who stank of booze.’ As they walked along the street, the girls crossed over and went into
a shop. He reportedly waited for them outside and again began to follow. After a short
period, one of the girls turned and asked if he wanted to pass by. He replied that he didn’t
and they carried, with him following. A short time later, he passed the girls and turned
around, reaching his hand up the skirt of his victim, grabbing at her crotch. They then
turned and ran to the police station to report him. He remembers sitting outside the police
station, unaware that his victim had been there. As he smoked a cigarette, he was
apprehended and arrested on a charge of indecent assault against a minor.
Although his victim was fourteen years old, he strenuously claims that she looked 17 or
18yrs. He has been finding it difficult to conceptualise his offence in the terms described
as he continuously states he has limited recall of events.
Gordon
I don’t understand why I have to do this. It seems clear to me that I do not have any kind
of anger problem but just suffer from an intolerance of incompetence. I don’t think I am
unusual in that I have an expectation of how things should be done and when they are not
done correctly, I just want them done in the proper way. There are processes and
procedures which need to be followed and not doing so can have potentially serious
ramifications on a massive scale.
People make promises and give undertakings to do certain things in my line of work and I
have to expect they will follow these and be true to their word. I know that if I was not, or
at least if I was seen not to be true to my own claims then I should be pilloried for it and
quite right too. These standards should be reflected in the people I have to work with.
That is not unreasonable. And when they let you down, it’s a slap in the face, it’s rude
and self-centred and disrespectful to me and my position in the company.
I do get frustrated. I have already said that. I acknowledge that and that is something
which for me is productive. I use that frustration to urge other people on. That is in my
nature. I encourage others and I am able to motivate people and keep difficult projects
going. I know I am exceptional at that. You don’t get to be in my position without having
shown a considerable amount of talent in people managing.
I suppose some people would say that they are afraid of me but I don’t know why. It’s
only usually at work they say that – at home, I’m fine. You’ll never hear my children
unhappy or fearful, unless it’s about something important like the state of the economy.
But everyone should be concerned about that. I know some people at work have called
me dour or obdurate but I am a serious man for serious times in the workplace. My
business is about to go belly up and strong leadership is what is required and that is what
I do best. If that means certain people are running for it, then so be it. They should run.
They know what they get from me and they get what they deserve.
Yes, I shout and swear and have thrown some things around the room but it’s not in
anger. I’m making a point. You bet nobody is unsure of my mood when I’m like that. It’s
emphasis. And to me, it’s all in the emphasis.
George:
It’s taken me ages to actually realise that I’ve got a problem. I’ve always been a bit
highly strung and I used to get frustrated, even when I was little. My parents kind of sent
me off to boarding school when I was about 8yrs and they lived in France. I guess then,
in that situation, you kind of see the teachers in loco parentis or whatever they call it and
that means that when you see your parents they’re more of an authority figure. It’s not
ideal really but it was OK, I had some good mates and that.
But I always remember, I used to have real tantrums as a kid. I just couldn’t deal with it if
things were being done wrong, or just not like I wanted. I remember I used to scream and
scream and run off and all sorts. It’s quite funny looking back actually. But it was pretty
intense at the time. Then I was alright for a bit and it was just teenage stuff really. I
smoked a bit of green with my mates and we drank a bit but nothing too bad. Anyway, in
a way I think that’s probably what kept me sane. And still does really. I’m just a lot
calmer when I’m smoking.
But it’s only recently things have started to get pretty bad. Actually, they’ve probably
been bad for a bit but it’s starting to affect my relationship with Laura now and that’s
something I don’t want. We’re meant to be getting married in 2 months time and yeah,
that means there’s a lot of stress at the moment. She’s not doing things the right way and
is just lazy. She was meant to sort out a tasting day for the food and she didn’t even do
that. And anyway, the other day we had a row and we can have seriously blazing rows
and what I usually do is just hit out at something in the room. Just punch stuff like the
pillows or anything. But the other day I whacked this empty carton that had a bottle of
whisky in it and I just hit it really hard across the room and I didn’t mean to, but it just hit
Laura in the head and she had a massive gash which was bleeding. And I just can’t have
that. I know I needed to get it sorted.
There’s been other stuff too. Like at work, I’m pretty senior at work, I’m a partner and I
just get so frustrated with people when they can’t do something right. Like there’s this
girl and she’s meant to be a highly qualified accountant and she couldn’t even work out
10% of 24,000 without a calculator. I mean, even my Mum can do that and she’s not even
numerate! And I said to her that this was going to be a problem because you need to have
a head for numbers at my work and anyway, it all went on and she ended up making
complaints to the board about me for bullying. But I just couldn’t believe it! Anyway, I
told them I was going to get some help.
At the moment I’m coping by just smoking a bit of herb and relaxing after a long day and
things are OK with me and Laura but I know there’s a problem and I want to sort it.