Here's a fascinating article (via AL Daily) about a group of kids in California who testified against a neighbour on charges of sexual abuse, but 20 years later, after living with the knowledge that they'd been persuaded to lie and that the charges were baseless, set the record straight:
Last January, Sampley and three other former accusers returned to the courthouse where they had testified against Stoll. This time they came to say Stoll never molested them. They are in their late 20's now. They have jobs in construction, car repair, sales. A couple of them have children about the same age as they were when they testified. Although most of the boys drifted apart after the trial, their life stories echo with similarities. Each of them said he always knew the truth -- that Stoll had never touched them. Each said that he felt pressured by the investigators to describe sex acts. A fifth accuser isn't sure what happened all those years ago but has no memory of being molested. During the court hearing to release Stoll, only his son Jed remained adamant that his father had molested him, though he couldn't remember details of the abuse: ''I've been through many years of therapy to try to get over that,'' he told the court.
Only the one who'd been through therapy stiil believed in the reality of the abuse. That tells you a lot. Indeed one of the kids later told a therapist that he'd lied in court, only for the therapist to report to the kid's father that his son was "in denial".
It's a small victory, but the war isn't over:
Still, discredited child-sex rings like McMartin [the most notorious of the sex abuse cases in the eighties] actually may not be a bogeyman of the past. Some parents, therapists and child-protection professionals continue to believe ritual sex abuse took place at McMartin preschool. ''In 10 to 15 years, there will be an attempt to rehabilitate the ritual abuse scare,'' [psychologist] Wood says. ''You can bet on it.''
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