BS: Shannon found- alive!

Subject: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 12:47 PM

The missing 9-year old Shannon Matthews has been found- alive ! Good news for a Friday afternoon!

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,scooby
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 01:01 PM

Yes it is good news.I expect he was known to her as the mother had seven different fathers to her children.I just hope she was not sexually hurt to be scared for life.


Scooby.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Emma B
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 01:32 PM

Hardly pertinent to the case....

The reaction of the media has been strangely different from that of the photogenic child of professional parents

'Missing children and the media: The wrong kind of family?

The case of Shannon Matthews, the missing nine-year-old from Dewsbury, has developed a cruel overtone: an unspoken suggestion that, because of their lifestyles, her family deserve not our pity but our censure

There is growing disquiet that other questions, posed by the media, have gone far beyond necessity and lifted the lid on an uncomfortable hypocrisy in British society. Yesterday, Ms Matthews, 32, and her partner, Craig Meehan, gave an interview to BBC Radio 4's Today programme about how they have coped during the three-week hunt for the missing schoolgirl.

Some 90 seconds into the interview, the presenter, Sarah Montague, sought to clarify why it was possible Shannon could have been unhappy and run away from the family home on the Dewsbury Moor council estate – a ramshackle but robustly proud community that even the local vicar describes as "an area of acute social deprivation".

Ms Montague said: "Perhaps we should explain. It's a slightly complicated family picture you have, isn't it? You've got seven children, by six fathers?"...

Ms Matthews, a woman who her friends say has barely slept for the last three weeks and spends a part of every day in uncontrollable tears, could conceivably have answered in a number of ways. She might have asked what relevance such an inquiry had to the hunt for her daughter, who disappeared on the afternoon of 19 February while making her way home from a school swimming lesson. Incredulity, anger or a resigned silence may also have been expected.

Instead, she quietly gave the correct number of previous partners with whom she has had a child: "Five."'

The Independent


I celebrate that this child has been found alive and echo the statement of Lyn Costello, co-founder of Mothers Against Murder and Aggression (Mamaa), which campaigns on behalf of victims of violence, who said: "It is a truth that few people want to admit to but the amount of publicity and sympathy you get if you are the victim of a terrible crime in this country depends on your social status. The question asked of Karen Matthews about the numbers of her children and their fathers is very typical. How is that in any sense relevant to what has happened to Shannon?"

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:15 PM

Thank you, Emma, for the link and the excerpts. That was my first reaction was what the aitch does it matter how many men the mother has had children with?!

It's good to know she was found alive!

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Grab
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:22 PM

I agree, great news.

But Emma - eh?

There was *big* criticism of the McCanns for leaving their child alone. There was also plenty of speculation about whether the parents were involved. And with the age of Madeleine McCann, there was no possibility that she'd run away.

But here we have a 9-year-old child who's independent enough to be finding her way around on her own, whose mother has been sexually promiscuous during her child's life, who's living in a large family on a run-down estate with little money to support them, and whose siblings have claimed her step-father had been physically abusing her. Given all those facts, is it a huge step to ask whether the girl had run away?

Really there isn't any comparison at all between the cases, and that writer on the Independent should have known better than to start the whole class-war thing. Having said that though, I would have also expected that interviewer to be more sympathetic to a woman who's clearly going through hell - asking the question is one thing, but to keep on going like that is plain nasty.

Graham.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,Sapper on UTU4 nearing Newport
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:45 PM

Thank God she is safe.
But there is now the question to be asked, was she hiding from her parents, or was she being hidden against her will?

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Emma B
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:52 PM

With an unlocked door there was every chance that the almost four year old Madelaine McCann could have woken up and simply wandered away searching for her absent parents.

While agreeing that it was not 'unreasonable' to ask whether Shannon Matthews might have run away from home (although her mother certainly was under the impression that she had been abducted and by someone known to the family) the style of interviewing however certainly was not.

Accusations the Shannon was 'unhappy' at home had been denied by both her natural father and stepfather

Not just The Independent has commented on the contrasting media reaction to this case however...

'When Shannon Matthews vanished after leaving her primary school, there was an initial flurry of attention on the impoverished council estate in Dewsbury, West Yorkshire, where she lived. West Yorkshire Police knew that they were dealing with a potential case of child abduction and threw unprecedented resources into their search. As the community pulled together, the satellite vans of the national media arrived on the hillside streets of Dewsbury Moor and for a few days Shannon's name featured prominently on newspaper billboards.

But no longer. The search for a vanished innocent continues but Britain seems to have lost interest.

This week the hunt appeared to have been classed as less newsworthy than the most minor developments in the search for Madeleine McCann, who disappeared nine months ago.

Is Shannon — a shy, timid, gentle girl — somehow deemed less worthy of our concern?

Dewsbury Moor is no Home Counties idyll, nor is it a Portuguese holiday resort. It is "up North", it is a bleak mix of pebbledash council blocks and neglected wasteland, and it is populated by some people capable of confirming the worst stereotype and prejudice of the white underclass.......

....Contrast the media-savvy McCann campaign with the brave efforts of Petra Jamieson, 30, a friend of Shannon's mother, who managed to persuade her local branch of Asda to donate 24 white T-shirts on which the girl's photograph had been printed.'
Times on-line 1st March

Anyways as PMB says - 'Good news for a Friday afternoon!'

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: skarpi
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:54 PM

very good news , but again this is making many get through bad memory´s
that have lost their children through the years .

ATB skarpi

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Georgiansilver
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 02:57 PM

Great that she has been found but I guess there has to be the usual inquest by the Police, the family, the community and of course the good old press. I will be really interested in the final story as there would seem to be more to it than meets the eye at present. I am sure this was not just a simple abduction by a 'strange' man......let's see....time will reveal all!

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Emma B
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 03:07 PM

West Yorkshire Police confirmed that Shannon had been found concealed in the base of a divan bed.

The abductor is reported to be a member of Shannon's stepfather's family; it is also suggested that his own children had been taken away from him, and he lived in the flat on his own.

Like all such situations there is probably a great more to this sad story.....

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 04:04 PM

And we'll undoubtedly get more. Lots and lots more. Not necessarily the relevant more, of course.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 06:34 PM

...whose mother has been sexually promiscuous during her child's life,...

If you are going to make those kind of statements, please cite your source.

It would be nice if everyone would refrain from making assumptions AND judgements. Guess folks just can't help kicking when someone is down.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 06:40 PM

There's a kind of prim prurience that always seem to emerge...

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 06:51 PM

And the same judgmentalism in Goa.

Women have as much right as men to a sex life.

I suspect a possible rescue mission. But not from the fact of her mother's sex life.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 07:22 PM

But first of all, and before getting into the arguments and the moralising, isn't it great to have a story like this which doesn't have the terrible ending that we have learned to expect?   

I've just been watching the scenes of the friends and relatives and neighbours getting the news, and it was like watching a miracle unfold. Very moving and completely genuine. You don't see something like that very often on TV.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: katlaughing
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 08:15 PM

It is fantastic, McGrath, yes.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,Greycap
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 10:01 PM

I've just returned from a gig in the Dewsbury area tonight - while on the way to the tonight's gig, I heard the news on the Leeds radio that this little girl had been found.
I know that most of my friends assumed, as I did, that she was dead, sexually abused, buried in a shallow unmarked grave etc....
The important thing is that she is alive - thank Heaven!!
Her mother's sexual activities, her social background , are not in the frame as relevant, as much the fact that thise little girl is ok.
Right?
This little girl doesn't probably have our social upbringing, for lack of better word skills, but agree with me, it's miraculous that she has survived?
I don't doubt that she will have been molested, or worse, but she can survive.
In my humble opinion....
I'm so pleased she's ok.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Charley Noble
Date: 14 Mar 08 - 10:19 PM

It's better.

With a little more support the mother and child might even survive.

Charley Noble

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Liz the Squeak
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 02:34 AM

I don't read newspapers except the free paper on the train, and I don't watch or listen to news programmes on radio or TV, but even I knew what Maddie McCann looked like after a week. I wouldn't be able to identify Shannon if she came up to me in the street - there is definately a huge difference in the press reaction to this case. Maddie was front page news every day for months - I've seen possibly one front page picture of Shannon in the 3 weeks she's been missing.

As a parent, I'm glad for her mother that she is alive and well, as a human, I'm sad that these things happen, but as a person who tries very hard to treat all equally, I am furious that this poor girl was relegated to the inner pages because she wasn't so photogenic, she wasn't the product of a middle-class upbringing or she was just those few years older and presumably more able to make cognitive decisions herself.

I had heard nothing of her upbringing until I read this thread - but suddenly the lack of people talking about it, becomes all too clear to me.

LTS

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Partridge
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 04:39 AM

Shannon lives three miles away from me, I was so happy to hear the news that she had been found alive and apparantly ok. There has been so much activity from the people of Dewsbury in an attempt to find her. The police activity has been very noticable - I've never seen so many!

The majority of my friends all live in Dewsbury, and its a strange place, one might say all life is there. Its had a lot of bad press recently because of the london bombers. It is a town that is run down. Many of the large retailers have pulled out of the town centre, and its become a pound shop, charityshop kind of place.

My local pub, The West Riding Refreshment Rooms, located on the station in Dewsbury, has won the best CAMRA(real ale) Pub in Yorkshire two years in succession. Again I would say all life is there, You have buiders sitting with teachers and MP's and actors and those who don't seem to work at all, you also get the occasional madman/woman. There are also some very dodgy looking types (that would be me!)

There has been much discussion about Shannon over the last month and the local papers made her front page news every week, there were posters everwhere. The good people of Dewsbury will have toasted her return with gusto. At least she is safe now.


I'm sorry if this has been a bit of a ramble, I was just trying to give a picture of the place.

Pat x

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 05:10 AM

"But first of all, and before getting into the arguments and the moralising, isn't it great to have a story like this which doesn't have the terrible ending that we have learned to expect?   

I've just been watching the scenes of the friends and relatives and neighbours getting the news, and it was like watching a miracle unfold. Very moving and completely genuine. You don't see something like that very often on TV."

McGrath's right on the button. A child most of us thought of as abused and murdered has been found alive and, apparently, well. That's a cause for real celebration, and the picking-over of her mother's lifestyle is, at this moment, unworthy.

Like others, I suspect there's more to this story than first meets the eye, but I don't believe the mother's the one who should be targetted, she's clearly been a tormented woman these past few weeks and is deserving of real sympathy from all of us who have gone through parenthood. IMHO.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Mr Red
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 05:26 AM

Considering the huge police effort and the community apparently did a lot it fills my heart with hope. The father thought that because they were poor it was more difficult for them than say the McCanns who were rich and had rich friends. The fact that the police and the community were so responsive may have been down to the fact that there were no unfortunate lapses on the parent's part. Plus a few cultural differences maybe.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: katlaughing
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 06:01 PM

Thanks, Patridge, for that glimpse of Dewsbury. It's really interesting.

There's got to be some classism in the coverage or lack of...to many, it was unusual and shocking to think that so-called higher class parents like the McCanns might have been negligent, yet people have no problem jumping to that conclusion when it comes to some one of lesser means. It's sad refelction of society.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Jean(eanjay)
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 06:14 PM

3 positives here:

Shannon has been safely found.

The police pulled out all the stops to find her.

The community have given her mother the support she needed .... however you can tell that, sadly, it has taken its toll of her.

Good luck to all of them.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 06:32 PM

No one had denied that the McCann's were negligent in going round the corner to eat while their kids were in bed. The arguments were about about the degree of negligence involved was - whether it was the kind of daft thing that many good parents have done, or whether it was somethi g that no good parent could ever do.

Any time a child goes missing there is a question as to whether the parents have done something wrong. It's heartbreaking, but it's founded on the knowledge that all too often that is the case. And this applies just as much when parents are well off as when they are poor.

when it comes to people jumping to the worst conclusions on the basis of prejudice I don't think the experience of the McCanns indicates that this is something that only happens to poor parents.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Emma B
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 06:55 PM

Kevin as a professional Child Care worker I have criticised the McCanns for spending several hours drinking in a Tapas bar with friends every night of their holidays (which was not 'round the corner' as the media choose to repeat) and not because they were 'middle class', although they could well have afforded the cost of a baby sitter.

I have also criticised the way that the buisness fund was set up so that the money that ordinary people donated was not able to be used at all to assist in the search for Shannon or indeed any other child.

I replied to scooby's post because it not only brought up the totally irrelevant issue of mother's serial relationships but couldn't even get that accurate!
It seemed all too indicative of a pernicious attitude to what people 'were' rather than anything that they had done.

In this case mother, and the rest of this large, rather 'chaotic' family appear to have done nothing but to act as any other parent would in these circumstances, calling in the police immediately and assisting them at every stage of their enquiries.

As eanjay said - a positive outcome and hopefully a happy recovery for the child too.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 15 Mar 08 - 08:26 PM

On the maps I've seen the Tapas bar does look quite literally round the corner. But aside from that I can't see that what you wrote there in any way differs from what I wrote - there was different opinions expressed about the level of negligence, but no one disputed that the McCann's had behaved foolishly.

Rushing to judgement in these kind of cases, without the kind of detailed knowledge that would be required, is indeed always a mistake. There is often a tendency to do so, and parents of any kind can be the target.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,Guest. who also hopes.
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 06:43 PM

Emma..
I think you misunderstood Scooby's post.
Her comment did not refer adversely to the mother's serial relationships. She simply pointed out the fairly obvious fact that there were several men friends of her mothers that she would know well enough to go away with.
I think the hope that the girl was not "sexually hurt to be scarred for life" was the more important part of her message.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Dave the Gnome
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 06:56 PM

Different circumstances. Different cases. Different outcomes. Different eveything apart from the ones who would still castigate the McCanns for the disappearance of their daughter. Amazing the lengths to which some poeple will go to justify their own previously ill thought arguments.

Sad really.

D.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,Happy Tapper
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 07:52 PM

I agree it's great that she has been recovered, and hope that she does recover from it all.

What I want to know is how come ITV were exclusively filming the story, and had been 2 days before and were coincidently present when she was 'discovered'? I think there is much more here than we have been told. This family are going to be rewarded by magazines, sleazy tabloids, worldwide tv interviews, morning telly, Richard and Judy... need I go on?

HT

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 16 Mar 08 - 08:00 PM

If you were filming what was going on, you'd have to be pretty thick not to have missed it when the news came through.

Remarkable what you can do in the way of malevolent insinuation just by inserting quote marks round a word...

"...need I go on?" Preferably not.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,leeneia
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 10:53 AM

It's important to distinguish the attitudes and behavior of the media from those of real people. I've learned here that the media were not much interested in Shannon because she was not well-off and was not photogenic. Real people, however, have been looking very hard for her and are rejoicing in her return.

Always remember that a newspaper, a TV news program or a magazine is just a business, and its goal is profit.

As for Shannon's photogenicity, I bet a good photographer could make her look pretty cute. Nobody's bothered.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: the lemonade lady
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 11:59 AM

Does anyone know why she hasn't been allowed to see her mum?

Sal

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Emma B
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 12:05 PM

'Mrs Matthews, 32, was allowed to see Shannon for just two minutes - just enough to whisper: "My baby, my baby, I love you" as she gazed at the daughter she had feared she might never see again.

A police source explained why Shannon will not be allowed to return home for some days                              
"There is the forensic evidence we need to take first, then the slow interviewing process," they said. "Only when this is completed can we look at sending her home" '

From today's newspaper reports

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 01:01 PM

That's a very peculiar procedure. You'd think a small child would be traumatised at being removed from her parent, and that restoration to normality would take precedence over all other concerns. I suspect that she has asked not to be sent home, but the police aren't saying that for fear of making the redtops go bananas. The whole thing looks like a runaway rather than an abduction. Was she 'hidden' in the bed drawer, or 'hiding'?

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 01:14 PM

Speculation is pointless in regard to all this. It can rapidly turn into a kind of mob feeding frenzy, with nothing real to base it on.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 01:17 PM

"Was she 'hidden' in the bed drawer, or 'hiding'?"

Dunno, but her Step-father's uncle was reportedly 'hiding' in the other drawer. I'd say that sounds very suspicious, if she'd simply run away from home, why didn't he either march her straight back or, if for some reason he didn't want to do that, alert the police?

And the fact that she's being kept from her family is surely to ensure that she's able to answer questions without her story being 'massaged' by other (adult) influences.

And surely what has to "take precedence over all other concerns" is to ensure that the person responsible for her abduction doesn't get the chance to do it again with some other child.

This looks like a can of worms that's barely been opened yet.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,Happy Tapper
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 01:52 PM

He was hiding in the other drawer? Was he a midget?

HT

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,Yorkie
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 02:59 PM

There is one hell of a bad smell about this whole case. Voices on the ground say it was all a scam and family members are openly laughing at which newspaper will make the highest bid for their story.

The media called the family "Working Class" well believe me, NONE of the family work, without exception. Unless you call living of Incapacity Benefit or Disability Living Allowance and scrounging of the Welfare State working.

It is a relief that the child is safe. Many of us living here hope the child who is still in the care of Social Services remains there and never returns to that home or that family.

There is a television series in that family, and it wouldn't be a comedy.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 17 Mar 08 - 06:22 PM

Those last few posts would seem to indicate what I meant about "It can rapidly turn into a kind of mob feeding frenzy..."

There's no need in the world to hurry to make judgements about this. The motives of people who do feel that need are themselves pretty suspect.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 09:44 AM

"He was hiding in the other drawer? Was he a midget?"

No idea, I wasn't there. Maybe it's another case of the Journos stirring it up as usual. Never let the truth get in the way of a good story, eh?

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Keith A of Hertford
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 10:43 AM

It is just prurient curiosity, but you have to ask why the delay in charging the man who was holding her.
The police had to ask for extra time before charging him with kidnap and imprisonment.
So, on what grounds was/is he denying the charge?
Consent of the parent?

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,PMB
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 10:58 AM

'appen. Note no child abuse charge. Curiouser and curiouser.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Emma B
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:25 AM

The defendant is charged with two offences, unlawfully kidnapping the schoolgirl and imprisoning her against her will.

Isn't that enough?

Yes I would say it IS purient curiosity to question why the police should request just an additional 24 hours in order to obtain the evidence they would need from a young girl described frequently as 'timid' and questions are being allowed to occupy only two hours a day.

As Sir Norman Bettison, the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police has stated
"Talking to a nine-year-old isn't a question of sitting them down with a pen and piece of paper and getting that information,"

'Shannon's story, which is slowly unfolding over several days of specialist questioning, has satisfied detectives that they are dealing with a genuine case of abduction.

Police insiders have also poured scorn on a theory that Shannon's disappearance was a hoax staged by one or more members of her family in the hope of gaining the reward money offered for her safe return. "Don't be in any doubt. This is an incredibly serious case," a police source told The Times. ....

Almost all the medical tests have been completed, but some forensic science work is continuing.'

From Time on-line yesterday

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:28 AM

Charming post from henryetta. It'e easy to see how rumours take root, with that kind of mentality abroad.

The mother went on that radio programme specifically to deal with those issues on which she was challenged, and which had been widely thrown around in the print media. Emma B, with her experience, should know that family circumstance is highly relevant in all investigations into crimes against children. Nine times out of ten the answers are within the family. The McCanns, after all, are suspects in the disappearance of their daughter. (And as such they sail pretty close to the wind, circulating on their own initiative, and against police advice, descriptions of others they claim to be suspects.)

Kat: Shannon's mother, who is 32, has seven children by six guys. Even if that's the limit of her sexual adventures I regard that as promiscuity, though I know a lot of people don't.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Emma B
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 11:55 AM

I understand very well that family cirumstances are important to the police in investigating any crime and in the court detirmining where care and welfare of children should best rest.

My 'complaint' is that the prurient style of interviewing of Ms. Matthews on Radio 4 was inappropiate in the circumstances and the prominence given to the fact that she has her children by 5 (FIVE! please get it right!) fathers and repeated (inaccurately again) in the second post here wholly disproportionate.

As to the question of promiscuity...

'In some cultures, the term is applied to any man or woman who has more than one lover at a given time. In some industrialized societies, it is likely used only, and derogatorily, in describing women who have many sexual partners' - defn from wiki

In fact there is no evidence that Ms Matthews was promiscuous in the first sense just that she had children by a series of relationships, personally I condemn the sexism inherent in the more derogatory usage of the word.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Wesley S
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 12:03 PM

I seem to recall that BB King has 15 children by 15 different women. Has he been called promiscious? No ? Hmmmmm........

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: GUEST,Yorkie
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 12:29 PM

While the relevant authorities are investigating the case maybe they could team up with the Social Security Benefits Branch and ask why this extended family are all work-shy. No one in the family have worked within the last decade and this poor child has witnessed daily day time drinking binges and in-house family brawling.

Social Services are dealing with a nightmare here.

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 01:33 PM

Emma B, may I agree with your view of the sexism in the use by idiots of the word "promiscuous".

Fionn - go somewhere else and try to reduce someone else to chattel status. Dinosaur!

Subject: RE: BS: Shannon found- alive!
From: McGrath of Harlow
Date: 18 Mar 08 - 04:45 PM

Unfair to dinosaurs!