In the BBC Newsnight and Tory child abuse claims scandal, has the real victim, Steve Messham, been forgotten?

[DeShawn]

He thought he was abused by a famous Lord, and after all these years, suddenly finds out it was just a nobody.

[Michael B]

That is probably true but irrelevant to what matters. Being eaten by a noble tiger is no better, for the prey, than being eaten by a smelly jackal.

The really interesting thing about the way this story developed is the uncritical acceptance by a large number of people, some of them (in politics and the media) whose lives should have taught them caution. The magic words for them (apart from 'paedophilia') were 'Tory' and 'Thatcher-era.' For very many in the magic circle of the BBC and the liberal-left that was enough; more evidence was not needed. Nothing was too bad to be said of them, and the dirt-hounds were not sad to believe the very worst without even asking the question: is it true? They whipped up, by innuendo and insinuation, an hysterical witch-hunt without pausing to ask whether there were in fact any witches to discover, or if there were, in which party and in which profession they were really to be found.

There will of course be some - not many, I hope and believe - guilty of this offence in more than one subculture. The proper people to investigate where necessary are the police. Perhaps we could now leave it to them.

[G20 witness]

Oh dear...there's probably half a dozen on here - well, one for sure - who would want to put a bullet between your eyes right now.
But seriously - Lord McAlpine on the other hand doesn't have it in for Messham as such - but for the BBC, who were lackadaisical and eager to play 'red-top' games in order to 'get one up' on the other channels - in fact, he feels for the poor sod, and can understand how he was himself confused as the media wanted to 'speed right along here' and make Joe Public happy - and that includes insular gossips who were starting to get pee'd off at boring (and dead, bedamned) Uncle Jim - and who wanted m-o-r-e-n-a-m-e-s!!!

[Schadenfreude]

he got molested and didn't know the perverts face how did that happen was he blindfold and throw into a room before the crime was committed?
how do y'not not know?? and before you all get all shitty and thumb me down i was molested by an older guy when i was 9 his face is scorched into my memory....not wait it was nick clegg oh hang on no it wasn't phew good job i never went to newsnight
ffs

[David.G.H.]

Its really nonsense all this.I have followed this story 12 hours a day. News night did not implicate Lord Mc Alpine any more than any of the other names on the net. They said a politician from Thatchers era.
Iain Overly was the investigative journalist member on Twitter who said Newsnight was,he hoped,-going to reveal this person.He did NOT name him.
Most people thought it was Ken Clark. It was only when McAlpine got angry and said it wasnt him they have realised it was wrong. Lord McAlpine was only the Tory Treasurer.He was a business man Mrs Thatcher asked to do the job.He wasnt a minister,nor even an MP.I had barely heard of him,so I dont know how a 12 year old boy in a care home could have known him. They need to investigate all the other names and shut down Ickes.site WHY HAS ANYONE THUMBED ME DOWN ? WHY ITS ALL FACT FOR GOODNESS SAKE>

[Juan]

not yet