Beatrix Campbell: Child Protection – Keynote Address

"What the judicial inquiry was supposed to ask itself was not “what's happened here, what might be happening to these children.” But, “how have professionals responded to this blankety blank, this thing that has no name that we are not allowed to think about?”"

"We will spend a fortune finding out what ‘blank’ didn't happen. What has not happened. What we are not allowed to know."

"That's the voice of the adult survivor. She, of course, is not a new voice. She's an old voice. She's been trying for a millennium to tell her story."

Abstract:

The last decade can be characterised as a decade of discovery and demise. This session will map the volatile politics of child protection since 1987 and the Cleveland crisis. 

Beatrix is a writer, journalist and activist. Her books include Goliath, Iron Ladies and Wigan Pier Revisited as well as Unofficial Secrets, a book on the child abuse controversy in Cleveland, UK. She writes regularly for The New Statesman, The Guardian, The Scotsman and others, and is a regular guest on many television programmes. Beatrix has also conducted research around the satanic ritual abuse of children. 

Since 1996:

Beatrix has continued her journalism and activism, receiving an OBE in recognition of her work in 2009. She has written several books, the most recent of which, ‘Secrets and Silence’, revisits the Cleveland Case discussed in this recording.