FAX

Sent to the BBC and the Scottish Prison Service

0141 334 0614, 01779470529

2^nd May 2003

Dear Sir

I am writing this letter with regards to the program Secrets or Lies which was shown on BBC Frontline Scotland on the 1^st April 2003. I and many others like me are appalled to be faced by convicted paedophiles having access to such prominent publicity whilst still serving their sentence. I have already written to the BBC a similar of complaint to the BBC but their response like that of many members of the establishment is to justify their own actions and totally disregard the views of the victims of such crimes.

Primarily, I would like to know whose influence permitted the BBC to interview a convicted paedophile in his prison surroundings. Not only that, when one stops to think about it, the ink is barely dry on the record book. Porteous was only convicted in November 2002 and by the 1^st April 2003 after only 5 months behind bars he is allowed this undeserved privilege of being the first paedophile, still serving his sentence, to be shown on main stream television. Is this now going to be the case for all contemptible people or is it just that Porteous has still got access to all the right connections.

You may want to know why I feel so strongly about this issue perhaps you already guessed that I am just one of the countless victims of such abusive people. In fact I know Porteous very well, having been brought up in the same institution as him over forty years ago. In my opinion Porteous, like all paedophiles, is simply such a warped character that he cannot see the enormity and depth of his own depravity, hence his ludicrous claims of miscarriage of justice. To be totally honest, throughout his interview, I felt he was putting on a well rehearsed act for his "new" friends in the Frontline Scotland Team.

As I said I know Porteous only too well and believe him to be a devious, deceitful individual. His wife who shared the same platform via the BBC might well be described as exactly the same type of character if she truly cannot see past his evil mind. If that is the case then they are clearly two of a kind and well suited to each other. In fact you may be interested to learn that I have heard that Mrs Porteous now publicly claims that you have informed her that your staff are dealing with an innocent man, hence his right to privileges not open to other criminals, such as access to public broadcasting systems. She must think that I and others like me have, as they say, "lost our marbles".

Surely you will agree that there was certainly one type of person missing from the Secrets or Lies program, that person being a psychologist, any psychologist, who would have possibly stopped the BBC dead before they even started this ridiculous charade.

Please note I am not for one moment being sarcastic, just truthful. I am saddened to be told by the BBC that this was potentially a miscarriage of justice as once again the victims have no voice only a resounding echo of "Liar - Liar" or in other words being told not to tell such dreadful lies about such well respected people. Will society and the establishment never learn?

I lived in Quarriers Homes for 16 years and many like me know only too well about the awful corruption of such institutions, both in my own time and sadly even today it still appears to go on up and down the country, behind curtains of respectability. Quarriers Homes may be a changed place today but even now they are reluctant to admit to previous wrongs and many there still insist on supporting the likes of John Porteous, at the expense of inflicting further grief and misery on their victims. Those victims may be adults now but we should not forget that they were only children at the time, innocent children who looked to staff of such institutions for care and support, and found only hell on earth.

Paedophiles like Porteous are inevitably very much part of the system and all too frequently their positions of power are abused to further their own sick ends. To make things worse part of their respectability is cloaked in religion. During my own time at Quarriers Homes we suffered from terrible religious persecution, constantly being told we were unloved and unwanted. How easy it became for people like Porteous to find suitable targets. In some cases the behaviour of so called religious people toward children was nothing short of animalistic and barbaric. Such people have no real belief in God and it is appalling that they were ever given such positions of power and authority. I myself suffered physical, mental and sexual abuse as an innocent child but knew that the only reward for speaking out was to be branded a liar and then suffer more of the same.

You and the BBC ought to be ashamed for your part in giving Porteous such a public platform from which to air his denial. It only serves to further punish people like me who were never given any rights. We were constantly branded liars, being incapable of telling truth from fiction. To see this type of program only makes innocent victims of Porteous and his ilk feel further betrayed and makes us relive our on personal traumas over and over again.

With further reference to Porteous, the Police found more than enough evidence to put this man before a court of his peers, and from this evidence those same peers gave their right and justful verdict. Lord Hardy clearly felt there was no potential miscarriage of Justice and quite correctly sent Porteous to where he now belongs and where he should have been long ago if the victims were listen to during their original pleadings in the Seventies. So once again I ask the question,"Whose influence persuaded you to grant such favour to a Convicted Paedophile"?