February 17

Events

• Current events

• 1847 - It's not like he gave them a demonstration! - Charles Webster Leadbeater was born on this date. In the 1870's became a priest and teacher at the school attached to Trinity Church in Tottenham, North London. The young Leadbeater was a very active minister. He opened several local branches of clubs and societies associated with the Church of England: the first being a local "study" club for boys. Around 1900, Leadbeater had acquire an impressive reputation as a writer, a lecturer, and a teacher. Many members sent their children to him to be trained by him. Some came for short periods of time, others stayed for several years. On his long lecture tours, he sometimes took some students with him when travelling. In 1906, Leadbeater was accused of advising a group of young men in the United States about masturbation. That advice is the one that European doctors and members of the Clergy of that time would give to boys having sexual problems, but in the United States, the general opinion was that masturbation led to mental illness. The executive committee of the Theosophical Society in America ordered the British Section to brand Leadbeater as an homosexual and pedo. The complaints of a boy from San Francisco (1901) and another from Chicago (1904) about recommendations to practice masturbation were presented as evidence. Leadbeater never attempted to say anything for his defense. He resigned from his position in the church. He had the benefit of the friendship and even financial support of many supporters and defenders he had kept in the Society. He was still asked to be responsible for the education of many children.

• 1998 - Mom says kids and porn don't mix - An informal New York Times survey of independent video store operators in the New York area published on this date indicated that many of them depended upon rentals of "adult" videos to compete against Blockbuster stores, which have a policy against carrying them. One operator told the newspaper that such tapes represent 10 percent of his stock but 40 percent of his business. Others said that they survive by providing "personalized" services to customers. One told the Times: "I give my customers a break on late returns. ... I make suggestions for movies I know they will like. I have lots of stuff for their kids, and I will order almost anything they request." A tight-assed parent's organization responded to the study by expressing their disapproval of having children's films and porn in the same shops. Somehow, they felt that this made such places a more likely venue for pedos to try to pick up kids. No one knows why they thought this.

• 2000 - A Whale of a story - Wales' biggest pedo scandal began on this date when a nationwide hunt was launched for 28 staff who worked at homes in Wales where hundreds of children were abused in the 1970s and 1980s. It was launched when a report entitled "Lost in Care" showed what the Secretary of State for Wales called a catalogue of "appalling mistreatment and wickedness." The report, detailing harrowing sexual, physical and emotional abuse of both boys and girls stretching over 20 years, raised serious questions about the management and safeguarding of children in care in north Wales. The most pressing criticisms focused on how people who were supposed to protect children were in fact abusing them and how it was allowed to carry on unchecked for so many years. "I was abused by over 40 people - sexually abused," Steven Messham, who was 13 when he was sent to a home, said in the report. "As time went on, I realized there were other people involved, there was photographs taken and I wasn't being abused on my own." Messham said he tried to complain. "I made police statements in 1978 and nothing was ever done about it," he said. "No one was listening at all." At least a dozen of the hundreds of abused children were so traumatized that they committed suicide. Among its 95 conclusions and 72 recommendations, the report called for an independent children's commissioner for Wales and a children's complaints officer for every social services authority across the country. The government responded with a pledge for immediate action, including listing the names of those found guilty of abuse.