Posted on 03/21/2006 6:38:34 PM PST by iPod Shuffle
Man did not rescue child for fear of 'pervert' slur
ALEX CORNELIUS
A BRICKLAYER who passed a toddler walking alone in a village shortly before her fatal fall into a pond said yesterday he did not stop to help in case people thought he was trying to abduct her.
Clive Peachey, from Cornwall, told an inquest jury in Stratford-upon-Avon that he had passed two-year-old girl, Abby Rae, in his van shortly after 10am on 28 November, 2002.
This was just moments after the toddler disappeared from the Ready Teddy Go nursery in the Warwickshire village of Lower Brailes, according to staff.
Abby was found an hour later in an algae-covered garden pond and rescued by her mother, Victoria Rae.
She was taken to Birmingham Children's Hospital by air ambulance but was pronounced dead.
Mr Peachey, of Liskeard, told the inquest he had passed the little girl as she tottered towards the road in High Street.
He said: "I kept thinking I should go back. The reason I didn't go back was because I thought people might think I was trying to abduct her.
"I was convinced her parents were driving around and had found her."
Mrs Rae, 36, wept as Mr Peachey gave his evidence to the packed hearing.
She had earlier read emotionally from a statement as she relived the moment she dragged her daughter from the pond.
Two nursery employees had gone into the garden during their search but told the inquest they did not see the pond because it was covered in green vegetation.
The inquest was adjourned until today.
That really sucks, but you did the right thing.
My mom likes to tell the story about me, when I was around three years old. Early one morning while everyone was still asleep, I slid a chair from the dining room to the front door of our apartment. I climbed up, unchained the door, and let myself out. I proceeded to the median of a four lane highway. Standing there wearing only a shirt and underwear, I drew some attention. A man stopped and figured I must've came from the apartments.
When the man walked me back, our downstairs neighbor saw me and took me back to my apartment. He knocked on the door, and when my mom answered he asked if she was missing anything. When she said no, he told her to look around. After the horror of realizing my absence, the man handed me over to her. I'm just thankful this happened back
then, and not now.
Not long ago I was in a public restroom and there was a little boy trying to dry his hands.
I picked him up and held him so he could get his hands under the blow dryer, then let him down and he left.
When I stepped out of the restroom, he and his mother were there near the door and the little boy smiled with glee and shouted, 'Mommy! There's the man who did it!'
You can imagine my horror at that being yelled out in public!
Although there was never anything more said or done, you can bet that I'm not so quick to be helpful anymore.
I smell a lawsuit coming against the staff of the nursery.
My brother was involved in Little League, and he had a kid on one of his teams (I guess aged 7 or 8 yrs) who was climbing over a fence and slipped and got injured, and had a tear through the crotch area of his pants.
The kid was screaming bloody murder, and my brother couldn't see anything through the tear, so he grabbed the kids pants and went to pull them down to see if the kid had been impaled.
He told me, the first thought as he grabbed the kids pants was..."uh oh...what if someone accuses me of something improper..."
How sad is that?
I asked the kid where she lived and what her phone # was but all she did was cry and shake her head no. When she first saw me, she started running at me with arms outstretched as if to hug me, or for me to pick her up. I was rather taken aback by it all, as you might imagine, and rather sharply told her to stop and keep away. The crying started instantly and kept up until the kid went away. Unfortunately, the crying did not help allay the suspicions of the cop...
I felt bad for the kid, but what was I supposed to do? I wouldn't not help a kid that seemed in peril, but I'd just keep my wits about me as best as possible depending on circumstances.
ping
bump to your post.
Sorry, I disagree. Most people do not look at all men that way. They realize SOME men are that way, and therefore, I do understand the reluctance on the part of the man who passed her to offer her help, that people might believe he was one of those men.
But I totally agree that people would blame him and not the daycare staff is missing the point and utterly outrageous.
What a glorious victory for modern feminism.
Check out #171. I didn't mean that all people consider all men to be this way, but that the suspicions are there often enough to make a man wary of getting involved.
Then we agree. : )
But frankly, feminism created more of the kind of men it hoped to eradicate which did not bode well for women. In fact, it is my contention and always will be, that feminism was far more harmful to women.
It is the men who whine feminism ONLY hurts them, and believe it is only men who are hurt in divorce, or relationships, who irk me.
And the men I know who are victimized by spouses, are far angrier than women I know victimized by spouses.
That saying about scorned women is in my experience far more applicable to men.
I am glad to hear it, but every guy in this thread who received a grilling or even a nasty look in return for trying to help a child was describing an encouter with someone who didn't "feel for someone in that situation." The post-feminist rule is, "Treat strange men as molesters."
This thread describes a toxic psychological reality that receives very little attention in the media. The MSM seems to have more interest in promoting this sort of misandry than in critically examining it.
In fact, it is my contention and always will be, that feminism was far more harmful to women.
You may be right, but that is a separate subject.
It is the men who whine feminism ONLY hurts them, and believe it is only men who are hurt in divorce, or relationships, who irk me.
Yet another subject. I was certainly not trying to turn this into some sort of "my victim group is more victimized than your victim group" competition.
Something caused that driver to consciously override his natural instinct to protect the little girl. He made the wrong decision, but it was a very understandable mistake. His fears were rational.
I believe that decades of promotion of feminist bigotry is responsible for the widespread belief that "strange men are molesters," and that this excellent thread shows the widespread resentment of that bigotry.
Agreed.
"I believe that decades of promotion of feminist bigotry is responsible for the widespread belief that "strange men are molesters," and that this excellent thread shows the widespread resentment of that bigotry."
It's getting to the point that I don't want to be with anyone else's children alone and I'm a woman. I believe it's more than just feminism. It's also the current reality of child molestation.
OK, fair enough.
Outside of wartime such action would be of dubious legality. Most of the fundamental features of American law (e.g. trial by jury, Habeas Corpus, etc) are taken from long-standing traditions of English Common law.
That is what I thought, but perhaps since England doesn't have a constitu, ah, a written constitution, they are less clearly protected and easier to violate. Also, who is going to define wartime--would now count?
Good. Sorry for any misunderstanding. Sometimes I type faster than I think.
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