They also commit their atrocities all alone. It does not need to be a 'share' arrangement. Not with these particular victims. They are certainly old enough now to relate if there were multiple offenders on their person(s) in Ballarat. And if they want Spedding brought to justice, I feel they would want ALL offenders against them brought to justice. No need to 'protect' the very creepy Nichols. Quite the opposite. He needs to get off our streets .... permanently.
And, let's face it, Spedding and Nichols look nothing alike. Not in the least. There is no case of mistaken identity here. The (then) children knew their attacker, a relative of theirs.
It truly astonishes me, the resistance against believing that Spedding could be a child molester. As if the world is conspiring to bring this man down, for some personal dislike reason. The charges against him stand. With corresponding evidence. The girls (women) are subjecting themselves to great renewed trauma in following through. I'd like to see them given a little credence, as child victims. Unless otherwise is proven.
I understand your opinion and I'm usually of the same mind, however even in these types of cases, sometimes anomolies happen, and I guess I have so far been willing to give BS the benefit of the doubt as this case has unfolded for the following reasons,
1. He has been separated from the children in his care for a while now and when he was charged with the historical offences he didn't buckle but was adamant he would deny this til the end. He was therefore vulnerable to further people coming forward and making complaints about him, including the kids who had currently been in his care. I have heard of no other victims now in about 16 months.
2. He is a 60 something man who looks like they have been a stable member of the communities he has lived in and has no record. I know people can be different behind closed doors but I think it needs to be taken into account.
3. For someone who has had no experience of jail, he went in on bail and still didn't buckle, with I think more pressure from police while he was in there and isolated from his family and his name associated in MSM with TJ's.
4. His brother-in law was in contact with the victims in January '87 and had intent towards his neices. The offences against the victims were alleged to have happened on a weekend between March and April that year. The hospital, medical report was in May that year. The brother in law was not a garden variety pedo but the worst kind. The victim who was 6 at the time is the only one with memory of it. This seems to be the only incident where there is a medical report and case notes to back up the crime and unfortunately the brother-in-law may well fit into that timeline. My understanding is that the charges in Victoria relate to the same victim who would be even younger when they occurred, no medical records to show something has happened, no observations by the mother at that time have been reported in MSM. The NSW event was obviously the end of BS marriage to CH and with looking at the custody of the children, I think there would have been huge amounts of fear, suspicion, anger and coaching of children very possible. I think it's very possible his ex could have lied to his children cause she felt so guilty and responsible that her brother did this to their children that she thought she would lose custody of them.
5. This is obviously an event he has not hidden from his newer family or relatives, they seemed to allude to it before it hit the papers.
6. I think it's highly possible that in looking at BS during the investigation of the very high profile WT case, his past was agitated and I find it more likely that police approached the victims and their mother in the historical case than the other way around.
7. The fact is that the victims in this case were raped as children, one has no memory of the event and although many of you are confident that the other victim knows what happened to her and by whom, I can't help but consider that her mind may well have been vulnerable to other adults manipulation in her close environment.
8. The way BS was initially portrayed in the MSM gives me cause to think that the police used the media to paint him badly to begin with because they are under enormous pressure to come up with a result around WT, so I think there was prejudice against him by police.
9. That is why I am resistant to the charges levelled at BS. It's ok by me if I'm wrong, but this just seems to me to be one of those extraordinary cases and "POI's"
