It is indeed a terrible tragedy that two young girls have had their lives
taken from them, and the suffering of their family and friends must be
immense, but their plight was surrounded by so much furore that the
casual observer could be forgiven for imagining this had been the first
major crime witnessed since we crawled out of our caves and looked
around to see where the dinosaurs had gone.
Driven on by television and press reporters trying to eek every last drop of
emotion out of anyone they could shove their microphones and cameras at, the
media manufactured Soham Sob-Fest was in danger of becoming a national
phenomena.
After a fortnight of worry and tears, with the sensationalist media circus
encouraging so much outpouring of grief, loss and distress that the whole
affair looked likely to downgrade the death of Princess Diana to B-List
material, the affair was all but over.
Ian Huntley, former caretaker of Soham College, was arrested, charged with
abduction and murder, and later detained at Rampton secure hospital.
Deemed unfit to stand trial, he was marched off for psychiatric reports to
be made.
Maxine Carr, Huntley's partner and former classroom assistant, was charged
with attempting to pervert the course of justice, and remanded to
Holloway prison.
There have been two significant legacies left from the murder of Holly and
Jessica, beyond the vilification of Carr ( who has not been charged with
abduction nor murder, or any involvement in the two acts ) and insistent
demands that the UK brings back the death penalty, if not for all murderers,
at least for those who murder children, and if not for them, then for those
who murder children from Soham, and those who may have perverted the course of
justice.
In terms of pursuing justice, Cambridgeshire police have expressed
concerns about the press reporting of the events in Soham, with senior officers
making it publicly known that they feel much of the coverage has been
prejudicial to the ongoing legal process.
The Crown Prosecution Service, is reported to believe that a fair trial may
have been jeopardised and have consequently called for a top-level inquiry
into the media coverage of the two murders.
The second legacy has been the delayed start to the new Autumn term for many
students in schools and colleges around the country.
All of those who are employed in a capacity which involves contact with
children must be vetted to ensure that they do not pose a threat to those
children, and the responsibility for carrying out the vetting rests with the
Criminal Records Bureau, which carries out its task on behalf of the Home
Office.
It is interesting to note that both Huntley and Carr had been vetted, because
of their former work with children, and presumably passed the checks or they
would not have taken up employment in the roles they did.
There are media murmerings that the vetting procedure has been proved to be
fallible, although there is speculation that the process threw up flags which
later turned the police's attention to Huntley. The truth of any of this is
unlikely to be revealed until the case is heard in court, and after any
subsequent investigations and enquiries have been completed.
No matter how effective the vetting process is, or has been,
in the aftermath of Soham, vetting of those working in schools was touted as
an absolute necessity, and the government indicated that it was determined
that no one would be allowed to start work in the new term without having been
properly vetted.
Promising a fast-tracking of outstanding vetting work, the Criminal Records
Bureau took on a hundred extra staff in an attempt to clear the backlog which
had been slowly building up.
Vetting of staff is a task which requires more than looking at a
self-certified declaration and checking that the applicant hasn't ticked any
of the "I am a real danger to children" boxes, and only the government and
the most optimistic believed that the backlog would be cleared before the
term started.
As expected, vetting hasn't been completed, and Home Office figures at the
end of August showed there were about 12,000 outstanding cases to be processed.
Although the Home Office remains confident that it will have all outstanding
cases processed before most schools and colleges start their terms, in
areas where the term starts early, schools and colleges have chosen not to
open their gates until they have a full complement of vetted staff.
The Department for Education has backed the decision to keep students away until
vetting is complete, and has said that, "Child protection is paramount and
non-negotiable".
Which although fine-sounding, is in reality a pretty comprehensive argument
for schools to open, even when vetting was incomplete.
I imagine that there are very few cases where the vetting process turns up
those who are a real danger to children, and the attendance of non-vetted
staff would appear to present a small risk in the window of opportunity that
would exist between term starting and vetting being completed - which would be
any day now, if the Home Office is to be believed.
Schools and colleges are actually pretty safe places to be, especially when the
students are in class, attending lectures, or under teacher and
lecturer supervision. Although there is the potential for wrong doing when
students are alone with staff, they are much more at risk on their way to and
from their pace of learning, and during the time they spend away from it.
Holly and Jessica were not slaughtered in the middle of a math's class; they
were abducted from the street, in the early evening of a weekday.
While the residents of Soham may now be so paranoid that they won't let their
children play in the streets, and are queuing up to buy cars so they can drive
them to and from school, most parents have accepted that the dangers to their
children must be balanced against having them grow up as virtual prisoners in
their own homes.
It is obvious that for every day that a school or college delays the
starting of its term, students will be left to find something to do to fill in
the time, and, undoubtedly, this will mean that many will be on the streets,
in local parks, wandering around the local shopping centre and arcades, and
roaming the area in general.
So, while the schools are closed to protect students from errant teachers, they
are placed in a situation which carries a much greater risk to their safety.
Assuming that vetting has worked; the number of perverts, deviants and anyone
who would want to harm a child employed by a school must be very low. In which
case, the odds of meeting someone who wants to harm a child within a school,
even if some staff haven't been vetted, are a lot less than the chance of
meeting someone, who is that way inclined, outside.
It's ironic that in our efforts to protect children, we are quite happy to put
them in a position of greater risk than they would have been otherwise.
