False charges upset parents

Press, 19 April 1989, Page 9

False charges upset parents

By SUZANNE KEEN Parents Against Injustice is upset at a statement that the possibility some fathers might be wrongfully accused of child abuse is a small price to pay to have children and women protected.

The organisation’s secretary, Mr • John Walker, said he totally disagreed with the statement, which was made by the president of the Canterbury Association for Mental Health, the Rev. John Elvidge. “It is not a small price that these families are paying,” Mr Walker said. “It is totally devastating their lives and I do not think, anything justifies that at all.”

He said if child abuse work was done by professionals, parents would not be falsely charged.

. Mr Walker said Parents Against Injustice had about 35 member families in Christchurch, most of which have a parent who has been accused of child abuse. The organisation was set up last September to press for a Ministerial inquiry into false accusations against parents.

Mr Walker welcomed the item on the television programme “Frontline,” which questioned the handling of child sexual abuse cases. “I do not think children necessarily lie out of spite. I think it is because of the way questions are put to them,” he said.