LATE last year when Andy Woodward bravely opened up about the sexual abuse he had suffered as a young footballer at the hands of his coach at Crewe Alexandria, he gave others the courage to speak out.
Almost immediately football was engulfed in scandal as the horrific sexual abuse which had taken place in the past suddenly came to light. The NSPCC Helpline set up to help victims come forward soon received more than 1,500 calls.
Difficult questions began to be asked about current child protection processes so such abuse could never be repeated.
There can be no room for complacency.
Yesterday we read in The Herald about Lara Gorman who, as a 16-year old triathlete, had a sexual relationship with her adult coach. This again raised questions about how well children are protected in sport.
Ms Gorman’s story highlighted a gap in our law which must be remedied urgently. Currently, it is an offence for those in a position of trust such as teachers and social workers to engage in sexual activity with children under 18. Yet the definition of “positions of trust” is limited.
Roles such as sports coaches or youth workers, for example, are not currently considered under the law despite the fact that they are clearly in a position to develop trusting and influential relationships with young people.
A position of trust should not be determined by the delivery of a narrow range of occupations or specific settings, but by those who have a special opportunity to develop trusting and close relationships with young people. Why should potentially vulnerable 16 and 17-year-olds have less protection from abuse solely because of the setting in which the exploitation by a trusted adult takes place?
NSPCC Scotland’s Trust to Lead campaign is demanding the law is strengthened to ensure those working in sport, and other relevant positions, are held to the same high standards we should expect from all professions where adults are in a position of trust over children and young people. However, such reform, though necessary, is not a panacea. The issue is more about sexual abuse than sport.
Joanna Barrett is NSPCC Scotland policy manager
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel