That means that, at a generous estimate, for every 1 that came out, over 50 stayed at home and averted their eyes. Par for the course it seems.
Still, it was raining. And perhaps there was something good on the telly.
Wednesday, 30 April 2008
Vigil in Amstetten
Some reported it was 200, some it was 400 of the good people of Amstetten (population 23,000) who came out in vigil at what had been going on under their noses.
That means that, at a generous estimate, for every 1 that came out, over 50 stayed at home and averted their eyes. Par for the course it seems.
Still, it was raining. And perhaps there was something good on the telly.
That means that, at a generous estimate, for every 1 that came out, over 50 stayed at home and averted their eyes. Par for the course it seems.
Still, it was raining. And perhaps there was something good on the telly.
News and Comment
I've been surfing the news. I don't think it's macabre or sick to do it when we have these intense human interest cases. I think it's a researching desire to find out why humans act so terribly.
The best comment so far came yesterday from a couple of really intelligent writers in the The Times: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article3834569.ece
Someone mentions an interesting book: Turmalin, by one Adalbert Stifter (mid-19th century Austrian author) in which a girl is kept in a cellar by her father: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalbert_Stifter . So far I don't see that it's translated into English.
You can get a copy in German at http://www.justbooks.co.uk/dir/i/Turmalin/3888491150/
I am tempted. I could exercise my school German, for which I got O-level Grade 6, even though my father was Austrian. I have just got £300.00 from the Austrian government for the loss of all my family out there in the 1940s. Sixty-five years after the event they gave us a wee window of opportunity in which to apply. I spent it on my 60th birthday party (which cost me £500.00). I was going to give it to charity, but I thought, gemuttlich-like, that family was everything and had a party.
Someone writes well on Hanneke's House of Horrors: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/04/hanekes_house_of_horrors.html
And to top off the day, a link to a funny site on Austria's projected clean-up-our-image:
http://ideafix7.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/sunny-austria-land-of-incest/
The best comment so far came yesterday from a couple of really intelligent writers in the The Times: http://women.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/women/the_way_we_live/article3834569.ece
Someone mentions an interesting book: Turmalin, by one Adalbert Stifter (mid-19th century Austrian author) in which a girl is kept in a cellar by her father: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adalbert_Stifter . So far I don't see that it's translated into English.
You can get a copy in German at http://www.justbooks.co.uk/dir/i/Turmalin/3888491150/
I am tempted. I could exercise my school German, for which I got O-level Grade 6, even though my father was Austrian. I have just got £300.00 from the Austrian government for the loss of all my family out there in the 1940s. Sixty-five years after the event they gave us a wee window of opportunity in which to apply. I spent it on my 60th birthday party (which cost me £500.00). I was going to give it to charity, but I thought, gemuttlich-like, that family was everything and had a party.
Someone writes well on Hanneke's House of Horrors: http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/film/2008/04/hanekes_house_of_horrors.html
And to top off the day, a link to a funny site on Austria's projected clean-up-our-image:
http://ideafix7.wordpress.com/2008/04/30/sunny-austria-land-of-incest/
Monday, 28 April 2008
I would have a little think about Austria, Amstetten, Cellars, Denial . .
. . . because they might need a little bit of thinking about.
Tonight, 29/04, on the BBC website: "You just can't imagine this happening here, in quiet Amstetten," one woman told the BBC.
Oh yes, I can. A lot of things happened in quiet villages in Austria only 60 years ago.
In 1938 they took my beautiful young uncle from a lovely quiet village near Vienna and imprisoned him in terrible conditions that had been created with similar, scientific precision of detail. Later they gassed him to death -- as one does.
In 1941 they blew up the synagogue where my grandparents worshipped (allegedly the same God as the Christians did). See http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%207002.pdf
Sixty years later, in 2001, when, as tourists, we strolled round the site of the synagogue, an old man -- who looked very similar to the now-revealed 'beast of Amstetten' -- rushed out of his house and told us very excitedly and urgently that that place had always been a riding school. This was in 'Templegasse' of all names! He must have been at least 10 years old when it was blown up. So why did he have to be in such denial? What is it with them?
They have very nice gardens and very nice log piles and very nice bakeries in these small towns and villages in the wine-producing region. The houses are quite immaculate.
Newspaper headlines called the case the "crime of a monster" and the "worst crime of all times" and stories questioned authorities and residents of Amstetten, 130km west of Vienna, for failing to notice "the martyrdom in the horror house" under their feet. I thought that was a bit funny. I thought there were far worser crimes of all times in Austria.
Amstetteners managed not to see the 2966 inmates of their very own concentration camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen. Odd, isn't it?
"The community of Amstetten, including its population, should drown in shame. ... The neighbours are very thoroughly looking away," the Oesterreich newspaper wrote in an editorial.
Well, where were they looking in the 1930s and 40s? They have to be nuts to be asking those sort of questions today. Do they have no recall? To paraphrase Howard Jacobson: "Just shut the fuck up and get on with building your Holocaust memorials".
"Obviously it was more convenient to look away from the neglected house than question its fabulous inhabitant of what he was doing behind his walls," the paper added -- without a single touch of irony.
We were "at war with Germany", but we always seem to forget that Hitler was Austrian. How can we ever forget the rousing welcome the Austrians gave the Nazi adjoiners?
When, in the late twentieth century, it was revealed that Kurt Waldheim had a Nazi past, my old dad said, "Oh well then, they'll definitely vote for him now." How right he was.
Nice little insight into Amstetten's past here: http://www.germanpostalhistory.com/php/viewitem.php?itemid=28938&germany=briefe&&PHPSESSID=995afb0cc8b682447d1f56e7d4d602d9
Postscript 29/4: The Times newspaper: "The ignoble fact is that 40 per cent of the staff and three quarters of the commandants of concentration camps were of Austrian origin. It was Austrians largely who organised the deportation of the Jews: 80 per cent of the staff of Adolf Eichmann, the logistics planner of the Holocaust, were from Austria."
On a literary note: there is something so totally heinous about locking people up in cellars, taking away people's human rights, that I always thought there was something gross about that gross old John Fowles who wanted to write about it in The Collector, and I need to examine why I don't feel that, say, Nabokov or McEwan are similarly tainted when they choose iffy material.
But hey, we all need to think about ourselves. Although I've drawn attention to it, I don't think there really should be something more inherently wrong with the Austrians when we, the Belgians, and all are perfectly capable of producing our own home-grown rapists, murderers, weirdos.
I seem to have to come out with the cliche that there's good and bad in everyone; and now I want to meet the good people of Austria: the groovers, coolios, happy nutters, cultured and kind intellectuals, listeners, thoughtful people, fun people, loving people of Amstetten, happy children and grandchildren of the Antisemitenbund of Amstetten. Look, there are three family surnames signed on the bottom of the note. I actually do believe that you can have come to terms with what your grandaddies did. We are all individuated now. Please say hi to me!
A ten heller note from Amstetten's Anti-Semitic Union.
Tonight, 29/04, on the BBC website: "You just can't imagine this happening here, in quiet Amstetten," one woman told the BBC.
Oh yes, I can. A lot of things happened in quiet villages in Austria only 60 years ago.
In 1938 they took my beautiful young uncle from a lovely quiet village near Vienna and imprisoned him in terrible conditions that had been created with similar, scientific precision of detail. Later they gassed him to death -- as one does.
In 1941 they blew up the synagogue where my grandparents worshipped (allegedly the same God as the Christians did). See http://www1.yadvashem.org/odot_pdf/Microsoft%20Word%20-%207002.pdf
Sixty years later, in 2001, when, as tourists, we strolled round the site of the synagogue, an old man -- who looked very similar to the now-revealed 'beast of Amstetten' -- rushed out of his house and told us very excitedly and urgently that that place had always been a riding school. This was in 'Templegasse' of all names! He must have been at least 10 years old when it was blown up. So why did he have to be in such denial? What is it with them?
They have very nice gardens and very nice log piles and very nice bakeries in these small towns and villages in the wine-producing region. The houses are quite immaculate.
Newspaper headlines called the case the "crime of a monster" and the "worst crime of all times" and stories questioned authorities and residents of Amstetten, 130km west of Vienna, for failing to notice "the martyrdom in the horror house" under their feet. I thought that was a bit funny. I thought there were far worser crimes of all times in Austria.
Amstetteners managed not to see the 2966 inmates of their very own concentration camp, a subcamp of Mauthausen. Odd, isn't it?
"The community of Amstetten, including its population, should drown in shame. ... The neighbours are very thoroughly looking away," the Oesterreich newspaper wrote in an editorial.
Well, where were they looking in the 1930s and 40s? They have to be nuts to be asking those sort of questions today. Do they have no recall? To paraphrase Howard Jacobson: "Just shut the fuck up and get on with building your Holocaust memorials".
"Obviously it was more convenient to look away from the neglected house than question its fabulous inhabitant of what he was doing behind his walls," the paper added -- without a single touch of irony.
We were "at war with Germany", but we always seem to forget that Hitler was Austrian. How can we ever forget the rousing welcome the Austrians gave the Nazi adjoiners?
When, in the late twentieth century, it was revealed that Kurt Waldheim had a Nazi past, my old dad said, "Oh well then, they'll definitely vote for him now." How right he was.
Nice little insight into Amstetten's past here: http://www.germanpostalhistory.com/php/viewitem.php?itemid=28938&germany=briefe&&PHPSESSID=995afb0cc8b682447d1f56e7d4d602d9
Postscript 29/4: The Times newspaper: "The ignoble fact is that 40 per cent of the staff and three quarters of the commandants of concentration camps were of Austrian origin. It was Austrians largely who organised the deportation of the Jews: 80 per cent of the staff of Adolf Eichmann, the logistics planner of the Holocaust, were from Austria."
On a literary note: there is something so totally heinous about locking people up in cellars, taking away people's human rights, that I always thought there was something gross about that gross old John Fowles who wanted to write about it in The Collector, and I need to examine why I don't feel that, say, Nabokov or McEwan are similarly tainted when they choose iffy material.
But hey, we all need to think about ourselves. Although I've drawn attention to it, I don't think there really should be something more inherently wrong with the Austrians when we, the Belgians, and all are perfectly capable of producing our own home-grown rapists, murderers, weirdos.
I seem to have to come out with the cliche that there's good and bad in everyone; and now I want to meet the good people of Austria: the groovers, coolios, happy nutters, cultured and kind intellectuals, listeners, thoughtful people, fun people, loving people of Amstetten, happy children and grandchildren of the Antisemitenbund of Amstetten. Look, there are three family surnames signed on the bottom of the note. I actually do believe that you can have come to terms with what your grandaddies did. We are all individuated now. Please say hi to me!
A ten heller note from Amstetten's Anti-Semitic Union.
Monday, 21 April 2008
Apologise to China?
Okay, I would apologise for the abuse of their poor athletes, but not for China's treatment of Tibet.
This pressure has to be kept up.
The Chinese army were secretly photographed, with Buddhist monks robes under their arms, ready to change into. They are on their way back from Tibet, where they went to run on the rampage, dressed up as Buddhist monks, in order to bring Tibet's monks into disrepute. The title of the French email below translates: "Here are the false monks who caused the violence in Lhassa".
I got this amazing "pass-it-on" email today. What do you think?
Tuesday, 8 April 2008
I'd be breathing a sigh of relief . . .
. . .that the charging of Karen Matthews might make the likes of Bea Campbell shut the fuck up (see http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/beatrix_campbell/2008/03/who_do_we_blame.html). It is so prissy, right on, wrong-minded to be up in arms about the questioning of a woman who has seven kids by five fathers. It is also an insult to the majority of us who find it gross. And how typical of the Guardian to close comment on this just when the lot of us want to take issue with blimmin Bea. Typical fucking precious Guardian.
I knew the minute the mother said that the child might have been abducted "to get back at me" that something was up. Can you imagine finding your child missing, and thinking of yourself before you think of the ubiquitous paedophiles that are allowed to roam uncastrated around this land? It was so out of order.
If it has cost £5 million for the police hunt for Shannon, I think it's money well spent. It has been endless entertainment for nearly two months. Far better than the shite like reality TV and Shameless that this lumpen nation is bombarded with. It has been a major sociology lesson that I think we all needed. It has got three children into care, where they will probably be really loved and do well in life.
Just a few more notes now:
1. The biological mbp father, Leon Rose, wants his Shannon back. This is the man who hadn't seen her since LAST SUMMER . . . "because of money problems and so on". I guess this means he wasn't paying maintenance for her, so that the (now "neglectful") mother then went and denied him access. I guess the paedophile fishmonger was paying for her clothing and Easter eggs and new pink bedding. Last summer means at least six months. And he says he can offer her a loving home! Give us a break, moron.
Worried Leon, 32, who has two other children, has kept in contact with Shannon after splitting with Karen before his daughter was born—and she has stayed [not stays every weekend or anything like it; in fact, last stayed last summer!] with him at his home ten miles away in Huddersfield. Leon confided in pals who revealed: "He's worried about his daughter's welfare [pass the sick bag, Alice] and determined she should not go into care. He's known for being a good dad [What? A dad who last saw his daughter over six months ago?] and his kids are always polite and never cause any trouble round here." [Main criteria for mbps]
Another friend of Leon said: "All these twists and turns have been shocking for Leon, but he's staying strong for his children living with him and for Shannon. He's had the anguish of searching for his lost daughter, then the relief at her being found alive, now followed by the worry about his little girl's future. His exact words to me were, ‘It's breaking my heart not knowing what will happen. I can't wait to see her'."
By Neville Thurlbeck
The ex-wife of Shannon Matthews' kidnap suspect has revealed he secretly fantasised about sex with children.
In an exclusive interview Sue Bird told how Mick Donovan's sick lust was sensationally exposed when horrified teachers found graphic sex notes he'd put in his own DAUGHTER'S lunch box.
He was then BARRED from seeing 12-year-old Jane and sister Mary, aged 10, but SNATCHED them from council care and hid away with them in Blackpool for three days.
Sue said: "On top of that he used to force me to dress up as a schoolgirl for sex. That's why none of this is a surprise to me. "He's actually kidnapped before, just 18 months ago. This man is a real nasty piece of work."
In an exclusive interview, Sue relived her seven years of hell at the hands of the man who was hauled from his Dewsbury flat on Friday after police smashed their way in. They found nine-year-old Shannon hidden in the drawer under a divan bed. As West Yorkshire police gently questioned the youngster about her 24-day nightmare, Sue broke down and revealed she always had doubts about loner Donovan as he:
SPANKED her in bed while fantasising about being a kinky father or headmaster. TRIED to STRANGLE her during one bizarre romp.
THREATENED to cut her throat unless she walked ten miles to get him drugs.
ENJOYED beating her black and blue—especially in bed.
Sue, 37, said: "Mick was a walking, ticking time bomb.
"He's so horrible, something like this was bound to happen. If he could kidnap his own children, he could kidnap anyone.
"When I heard little Shannon had been taken I was sick to the pit of my stomach. And I knew in my heart that it could have been Mick."
Sue insists 39-year-old Donovan— uncle to Shannon's stepdad Craig Meehan—had an unhealthy interest in children right from the start of their relationship in 1990.
Then just seven weeks after the birth of second daughter Mary in June, 1997, Susan was forced to flee Donovan for good. Police had been called to the family home SEVEN times to deal with his violence but Sue always dropped charges. But if she feared for herself, she was terrified for elder daughter Jane, with whom he had a worrying obsession. Susan felt unable to trust him alone with her. She said: "Something happened to Mick after Jane was born. He got very obsessive with her in an unnatural way. "He was always interested in changing the girls' nappies. He delighted in it and took ages over it. It used to make my skin crawl. "I couldn't relax around him or fully trust him with our children. "There was something not quite right about him. "As soon as we had the girls he became overpoweringly controlling and demanding.
Worried
"He'd take Jane out from 9am in the morning and not bring her back till 9pm at night. I was sick with worry.
"But he intimidated me so much I was afraid to go out in public with him. And I was shocked when we finally split and he said, ‘You're not taking Jane—but you can keep that thing!'—referring to our Mary."
For the next two years Sue lobbied social services to have Jane removed from Donovan. "I was really worried about her but they didn't seem to take me seriously," she said. Worse was to come. Susan became so depressed by her plight that in late 1998 she was admitted to hospital after a nervous breakdown.
"That's when social services let Mick have Mary, too," she said.
"Now both my daughters were under his control. I was bouncing off the walls with worry that he'd do something."
Finally social services acted in 2000, took both girls from Donovan and, with mum Sue still too depressed to care for them they were placed in a foster home. But their father still had access—until the scandal of the lunch box sex notes.
Sue, who now lives in Cornwall, last saw Jane in 1996 and Mary in 1998. They are being looked after by social services. Sue told us: "My mental health deteriorated because of Mick. [No, not because of Mick; because of drugs you fucking retard]. Much to my regret, I was in no fit state to look after the girls as I was in and out of hospital."
Sue's four other children by two other partners all live with their fathers. [So, let's just get that right for the sociology lesson: she has six children by three fathers, and not one of them lives with her].
She told us: "I can imagine how Shannon's parents are feeling right now because I've been through exactly the same fears. "I just feel so sorry for Shannon. I wish something had been done about him earlier then maybe this wouldn't have happened.
"I'm so glad she's been found but I feel sick thinking about what he could have done to her.
"I don't believe that poor girl was there of her own free will.
"That man is sick. What would a 39-year-old man want with a nine-year-old girl?
"I just want to tell her family how sorry I am. I feel guilty that I didn't do enough to take this man off the streets earlier.
"I knew that something like this could happen but nobody would listen to me.
"I never want to see that creature Donovan again and I wish I'd never set eyes on him.
"He's the most destructive person I've ever met. The law and social services should have seen this coming long ago."
I knew the minute the mother said that the child might have been abducted "to get back at me" that something was up. Can you imagine finding your child missing, and thinking of yourself before you think of the ubiquitous paedophiles that are allowed to roam uncastrated around this land? It was so out of order.
If it has cost £5 million for the police hunt for Shannon, I think it's money well spent. It has been endless entertainment for nearly two months. Far better than the shite like reality TV and Shameless that this lumpen nation is bombarded with. It has been a major sociology lesson that I think we all needed. It has got three children into care, where they will probably be really loved and do well in life.
Just a few more notes now:
1. The biological mbp father, Leon Rose, wants his Shannon back. This is the man who hadn't seen her since LAST SUMMER . . . "because of money problems and so on". I guess this means he wasn't paying maintenance for her, so that the (now "neglectful") mother then went and denied him access. I guess the paedophile fishmonger was paying for her clothing and Easter eggs and new pink bedding. Last summer means at least six months. And he says he can offer her a loving home! Give us a break, moron.
THE real father of kidnap victim Shannon Matthews has vowed to fight for her custody rather than see her taken into permanent care.
Leon Rose will offer the nine-year-old a loving home if she is not allowed to stay with her mum Karen.
Shannon's 10-year-old brother Ian is already living with him and partner Tracey, and Leon told friends: "She's got a good home ready and waiting here as well." . . . It was reported last night that at that meeting Shannon told her mum she does NOT want to return home.
Shannon's 10-year-old brother Ian is already living with him and partner Tracey, and Leon told friends: "She's got a good home ready and waiting here as well." . . . It was reported last night that at that meeting Shannon told her mum she does NOT want to return home.
Worried Leon, 32, who has two other children, has kept in contact with Shannon after splitting with Karen before his daughter was born—and she has stayed [not stays every weekend or anything like it; in fact, last stayed last summer!] with him at his home ten miles away in Huddersfield. Leon confided in pals who revealed: "He's worried about his daughter's welfare [pass the sick bag, Alice] and determined she should not go into care. He's known for being a good dad [What? A dad who last saw his daughter over six months ago?] and his kids are always polite and never cause any trouble round here." [Main criteria for mbps]
Another friend of Leon said: "All these twists and turns have been shocking for Leon, but he's staying strong for his children living with him and for Shannon. He's had the anguish of searching for his lost daughter, then the relief at her being found alive, now followed by the worry about his little girl's future. His exact words to me were, ‘It's breaking my heart not knowing what will happen. I can't wait to see her'."
2. Just a bit more sociology: I was very taken with the "interview" that the ex-wife of the "abductor" Michael Donovan gave to the News of the Screws:
Shannon man's vile sex secrets
Ex-wife reveals how he tried to strangle and smother her
ANGRY SUE: When I heard Shannon had vanished I knew it could have been Mick
Ex-wife reveals how he tried to strangle and smother her
ANGRY SUE: When I heard Shannon had vanished I knew it could have been Mick
By Neville ThurlbeckThe ex-wife of Shannon Matthews' kidnap suspect has revealed he secretly fantasised about sex with children.
In an exclusive interview Sue Bird told how Mick Donovan's sick lust was sensationally exposed when horrified teachers found graphic sex notes he'd put in his own DAUGHTER'S lunch box.
He was then BARRED from seeing 12-year-old Jane and sister Mary, aged 10, but SNATCHED them from council care and hid away with them in Blackpool for three days.
Sue said: "On top of that he used to force me to dress up as a schoolgirl for sex. That's why none of this is a surprise to me. "He's actually kidnapped before, just 18 months ago. This man is a real nasty piece of work."
Sue Bird, mother of six estranged children, now lives in Cornwall [it's enough
to put me off Cornwall for life]
In an exclusive interview, Sue relived her seven years of hell at the hands of the man who was hauled from his Dewsbury flat on Friday after police smashed their way in. They found nine-year-old Shannon hidden in the drawer under a divan bed. As West Yorkshire police gently questioned the youngster about her 24-day nightmare, Sue broke down and revealed she always had doubts about loner Donovan as he:
SPANKED her in bed while fantasising about being a kinky father or headmaster. TRIED to STRANGLE her during one bizarre romp.
THREATENED to cut her throat unless she walked ten miles to get him drugs.
ENJOYED beating her black and blue—especially in bed.
Sue, 37, said: "Mick was a walking, ticking time bomb.
"He's so horrible, something like this was bound to happen. If he could kidnap his own children, he could kidnap anyone.
"When I heard little Shannon had been taken I was sick to the pit of my stomach. And I knew in my heart that it could have been Mick."
Sue insists 39-year-old Donovan— uncle to Shannon's stepdad Craig Meehan—had an unhealthy interest in children right from the start of their relationship in 1990.
MASKING THE FEAR: Smiling Sue and baby Mary
"When he made me dress like a schoolgirl he'd want me in knee-high white socks, flat shoes and a tight top," she said. "I had to tie my hair up in plaits. And always no make-up, to complete the schoolgirl look.
"If I was wearing make-up, he'd make me go and wash it off. "His nickname for me was ‘Toots' and schoolgirl sex was always his fantasy. He'd often want it twice a day. "He'd spank my bottom during sex, too. He loved being in control. He said he loved feeling like a ‘father or headmaster' in bed. "I went along with it because he was very dominating and violent.
"If I was wearing make-up, he'd make me go and wash it off. "His nickname for me was ‘Toots' and schoolgirl sex was always his fantasy. He'd often want it twice a day. "He'd spank my bottom during sex, too. He loved being in control. He said he loved feeling like a ‘father or headmaster' in bed. "I went along with it because he was very dominating and violent.
Knife
"Sometimes, his violence would spill over into our lovemaking. He was having sex with me once when for no reason, he started strangling me. I could feel his hands tightening around my neck, so I pushed him as hard as I could and he fell off the bed. "I really thought I'd had it. But he just put on his dressing gown and walked out of the bedroom. "After that I started sleeping with a knife under the mattress. I honestly thought he'd kill me one day.
"He was really horrible, an obsessive compulsive man who had to be in control all the time—especially in a sexually violent way." Sue, who suffered years of brutal beatings at the hands of the 5ft 6in, nine-stone Donovan, then recalled the terrifying moment when her worst fears nearly came true. "A sixth sense woke me up," she said. "We'd gone to bed after a row and I suddenly awoke to find him straddling me and about to smother me with a pillow.
"I fought him off and he backed away, claiming he'd done it in his sleep. I never slept with him again after that. I stayed downstairs with a chair against the door. "He was addicted to opiates, and when he was high he wanted sex all the time. But when he was off them, he used to have black moods and that's when he'd attack me. Anything would set him off. He used to punch me, kick me and slap me. "He's broken my cheekbone and bust my nose several times. I always had cut lips and bruised ribs." Although scrawny, Donovan has immense strength, says Susan. "Once when the police came round to sort out a fight, he went ballistic," she said. "There were five hefty policemen and it took them all to pin him down.
Berserk
"He had a ferocious temper and it gave him superhuman strength."
Sue then recounted the chilling moment when, starved of drugs, Donovan threatened her with an eight-inch carving knife. She said: "He knew my grandad had some powerful painkillers he was taking for his cancer so he wanted me to walk the ten miles from Dewsbury to Bradford and back to get them. "I refused and he went berserk. He grabbed me from behind, slammed me against the wall and thrust the tip of the knife into my throat. I thought I was going to die. He looked me in the eyes and yelled, ‘Just do it girl!' "So I did and my grandad handed the drugs over because he knew I'd get a beating if he didn't."
"He was really horrible, an obsessive compulsive man who had to be in control all the time—especially in a sexually violent way." Sue, who suffered years of brutal beatings at the hands of the 5ft 6in, nine-stone Donovan, then recalled the terrifying moment when her worst fears nearly came true. "A sixth sense woke me up," she said. "We'd gone to bed after a row and I suddenly awoke to find him straddling me and about to smother me with a pillow.
"I fought him off and he backed away, claiming he'd done it in his sleep. I never slept with him again after that. I stayed downstairs with a chair against the door. "He was addicted to opiates, and when he was high he wanted sex all the time. But when he was off them, he used to have black moods and that's when he'd attack me. Anything would set him off. He used to punch me, kick me and slap me. "He's broken my cheekbone and bust my nose several times. I always had cut lips and bruised ribs." Although scrawny, Donovan has immense strength, says Susan. "Once when the police came round to sort out a fight, he went ballistic," she said. "There were five hefty policemen and it took them all to pin him down.
Berserk
"He had a ferocious temper and it gave him superhuman strength."
Sue then recounted the chilling moment when, starved of drugs, Donovan threatened her with an eight-inch carving knife. She said: "He knew my grandad had some powerful painkillers he was taking for his cancer so he wanted me to walk the ten miles from Dewsbury to Bradford and back to get them. "I refused and he went berserk. He grabbed me from behind, slammed me against the wall and thrust the tip of the knife into my throat. I thought I was going to die. He looked me in the eyes and yelled, ‘Just do it girl!' "So I did and my grandad handed the drugs over because he knew I'd get a beating if he didn't."
Susan first met met Donovan during a hospital visit to her mother in 1990. He was a fantasist who had changed his name from Paul Drake in honour of his TV idol, former Neighbours star and singer Jason Donovan. The pair moved to Bradford where they married after Susan gave birth to their first daughter Jane in May, 1995. (We have changed the names of both Donovan's children to protect their identities.)
Then just seven weeks after the birth of second daughter Mary in June, 1997, Susan was forced to flee Donovan for good. Police had been called to the family home SEVEN times to deal with his violence but Sue always dropped charges. But if she feared for herself, she was terrified for elder daughter Jane, with whom he had a worrying obsession. Susan felt unable to trust him alone with her. She said: "Something happened to Mick after Jane was born. He got very obsessive with her in an unnatural way. "He was always interested in changing the girls' nappies. He delighted in it and took ages over it. It used to make my skin crawl. "I couldn't relax around him or fully trust him with our children. "There was something not quite right about him. "As soon as we had the girls he became overpoweringly controlling and demanding.
Worried
"He'd take Jane out from 9am in the morning and not bring her back till 9pm at night. I was sick with worry.
"But he intimidated me so much I was afraid to go out in public with him. And I was shocked when we finally split and he said, ‘You're not taking Jane—but you can keep that thing!'—referring to our Mary."
For the next two years Sue lobbied social services to have Jane removed from Donovan. "I was really worried about her but they didn't seem to take me seriously," she said. Worse was to come. Susan became so depressed by her plight that in late 1998 she was admitted to hospital after a nervous breakdown.
"That's when social services let Mick have Mary, too," she said.
"Now both my daughters were under his control. I was bouncing off the walls with worry that he'd do something."
Finally social services acted in 2000, took both girls from Donovan and, with mum Sue still too depressed to care for them they were placed in a foster home. But their father still had access—until the scandal of the lunch box sex notes.
Sue, who now lives in Cornwall, last saw Jane in 1996 and Mary in 1998. They are being looked after by social services. Sue told us: "My mental health deteriorated because of Mick. [No, not because of Mick; because of drugs you fucking retard]. Much to my regret, I was in no fit state to look after the girls as I was in and out of hospital."
Sue's four other children by two other partners all live with their fathers. [So, let's just get that right for the sociology lesson: she has six children by three fathers, and not one of them lives with her].
She told us: "I can imagine how Shannon's parents are feeling right now because I've been through exactly the same fears. "I just feel so sorry for Shannon. I wish something had been done about him earlier then maybe this wouldn't have happened.
"I'm so glad she's been found but I feel sick thinking about what he could have done to her.
"I don't believe that poor girl was there of her own free will.
"That man is sick. What would a 39-year-old man want with a nine-year-old girl?
"I just want to tell her family how sorry I am. I feel guilty that I didn't do enough to take this man off the streets earlier.
"I knew that something like this could happen but nobody would listen to me.
"I never want to see that creature Donovan again and I wish I'd never set eyes on him.
"He's the most destructive person I've ever met. The law and social services should have seen this coming long ago."
Well done, Sue. Loads of money from the News of the Screws for that one. What are you going to spend it on?
I want to tell Gordon Brown that our society is even sicker than any of us can imagine, with an underclass that beggars belief, but I don't think he gives a toss.
Wednesday, 2 April 2008
I'd be pulling tight mortuary bandages . .
. . round the jaws of MBPs like this typical specimen.
I'd also be having a big think about the language my police force are using about this child pornography. They are keen to stress that Craig Meehan doesn't have pornographic photos of any of the children that live with him. Oh, so that's alright, then.
So, if I'm another male MBP -- or one of the hundreds of sex offenders in the area -- and live down the hill in Dewsbury, then, when the police raid my computer, they will be keen to stress that I only have some pornographic pics of two-year old little Courtney Meehan from up the hill, and don't have any pornographic pics of the kids I am living with (I forget how many or by how many mothers and fathers).
Fine.
Get your head round that Craig, you perverted moronic MBP scumbag.
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