Irony alert

Barnado's have announced that hundreds of British kids could be getting groomed for trafficking.

From the Grauniad.

Sophisticated networks of older men may be grooming hundreds of British children to be trafficked within the UK for sexual exploitation, the charity Barnardo's believes.

Organised criminals are gaining the trust of vulnerable young girls by showering them with gifts and affection, before plying them with alcohol and drugs, according to a report out today. They are then moved from city to city, where they are forced to have sex with numerous other men.

Barnardo's estimates that thousands of British children could be being sold for sex around the country, yet only 20% of local authorities have any specialist services to help them. Many children believe what has happened is their own fault, and are so ashamed that they never speak out about the abuse they suffer, campaigners say.

At the time of a snapshot survey last month by the charity, 21 projects were working with 609 sexually exploited children, around half of whom go missing on a regular basis. Ninety of them – spread over 15 projects – appeared to have been "internally trafficked".

 Well they should know, after all they are experts themselves in trafficking. They did it so well alongside the UK government with the Child Migrants Programme.

Particularly guilty were the homes of the Christian Brothers in Australia where several thousand children were accommodated over the years and where physical and sexual abuse and under-nourishment seems to have been rife.

A number of other British agencies such as Barnardos, the Fairbridge Society, The National Children's Homes co-operated in maintaining the policy for so long and despite warnings from governments and independent inspectors, it was pursued for almost 6 decades.

Now I know the warning is serious and they mean well, but really Barnado's reputation was severely tarnished over the years. Their hands are not exactly clean of child abuse themselves.

Two former Barnardo's workers were found guilty yesterday of 70 offences of sexually abusing eight children in their care.
There were tears and shouts of "Yes" from her victims as Margaret Hewitt, 69, was found guilty of 53 charges including indecent assault and inciting children to gross indecency.
Her co-accused Robert Anderson, 46, was convicted of 17 assaults against five children that included two rapes of a teenage girls, following the eight-week trial at Belfast Crown Court. They were cleared of 28 other charges.
The depth of "cruel and spiteful" acts by Hewitt and Anderson included forcing a brother and sister into sexual acts, said Gerald Simpson, QC.

Now I don't have a particular axe to grind against Barnado's, but the sheer irony of them reporting potential child abuse was too open a goal. I know they mean well, I know they do good work, but really pot, kettle, black.