Normal view

There are new articles available, click to refresh the page.
Yesterday — 1 June 2024Main stream

Carolina Bianchi was drugged and assaulted a decade ago. Now she drugs herself on stage, night after night

31 May 2024 at 20:00

The Brazilian artist’s show The Bride and the Goodnight Cinderella provokes debate – but, she insists, it doesn’t take a toll on her

The audience responses to Carolina Bianchi’s startling new stage show have varied. Some have walked out mid-performance. Others, among those who stayed, have broken down in sobs by the end. But the Brazilian artist has also had people send messages of how her performance touched them, how they spent all night discussing it. Normally, she says, “the reactions come slowly”. This is a piece you need time to sit with.

“I know it’s not an easy piece,” Bianchi says. “I think it provokes a lot of debate and conversation … and also I’m not making work that is about being ‘good’ or ‘bad’.”

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Clement Mahoudeau/AFP/Getty Images

💾

© Photograph: Clement Mahoudeau/AFP/Getty Images

Before yesterdayMain stream

Court revokes Northern Ireland law that banned naming of suspected sex offenders

31 May 2024 at 12:13

Media groups claimed act criminalised investigative journalism and meant no one could say Jimmy Savile was a paedophile

A Northern Ireland law banning the naming of suspected sex offenders until they are charged has been revoked in a court judgment hailed as a victory for press freedom.

The law, which came into effect last year, granted anonymity for life and 25 years after death to anyone suspected of sexual offences who had not been charged.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Radharc Images/Alamy

💾

© Photograph: Radharc Images/Alamy

‘Shame and betrayal’: sexual abuse within the spiritual healing industry comes to light

26 May 2024 at 07:00

Scandalous behavior that has dogged the Catholic church is becoming increasingly common in shamanic healing circles

Shamanic healing or opportunity for ritualized abuse? A lawsuit filed in New Mexico last week alleged that a “shamanic master” assaulted a woman during an “energy medicine” training session in March.

The claim, which is being investigated, could shed more light on what some say is a dark side of some trends in modern spirituality, especially those that involve the ceremonial use of often intense psychedelic treatments.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Beata Predko/Alamy

💾

© Photograph: Beata Predko/Alamy

My old headteacher has been convicted of sexual offences against pupils. But why did justice take so long? | Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett

21 May 2024 at 06:00

Concerns about Neil Foden’s behaviour were raised years ago. We need to understand how such abuse is enabled

There was a moment during the trial of my former headteacher that broke my heart when I read about it. Child E was giving evidence of how Neil Foden would take her on trips to Liverpool, pulling over in country lanes on the way back so that he could have sex with her. When the defence suggested that the purpose of these detours was so that he could recce new routes for country walks, she laughed.

Why did reading about the laugh get to me so much? I think it was because it implied a tragic worldliness. The loss of childhood innocence. Children should not be laughing, seemingly bitterly and cynically, about the sexual proclivities of adult men.

Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett is a Guardian columnist

Do you have an opinion on the issues raised in this article? If you would like to submit a response of up to 300 words by email to be considered for publication in our letters section, please click here.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

💾

© Photograph: Peter Byrne/PA

Cold Case Investigations: Solving Britain’s Sex Crimes review – how victims from 50 years ago are finally getting justice

20 May 2024 at 17:00

This remarkable documentary goes behind the scenes at a new major crime unit digging into dormant cases – and getting closure for brave survivors who’ve been waiting for decades

Cold Case Investigations: Solving Britain’s Sex Crimes initially appears to be yet another behind-the-scenes documentary about police work in the UK, along the lines of 24 Hours in Police Custody, Night Coppers, The Met and so on. But this stands out because the investigations covered in these two episodes are historic crimes, which have been unsolved for between 20 and 40 years, and because its focus is on sexual offences. The sensitivity this requires is evident; the stories are told carefully, with respect for the victims and for the officers meticulously reassembling what is often complex historical evidence and applying new techniques to it.

Rape is notoriously underreported, conviction rates remain horrifyingly low and the delay in cases reaching court was recently called “a serious stain” on the justice system by a senior judge. The statistics here arrive rapidly. Hundreds of thousands of unsolved rape and sexual assault cases are lying dormant in police archives across the UK. A major crime unit has launched a push to re-examine 5,400 unsolved rape and sexual offence cases from the past 50 years, using forensic science that was previously unavailable.

Cold Case Investigations: Solving Britain’s Sex Crimes airs on BBC Two and is available on BBC iPlayer now

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Natasha Zinni/BBC/Brinkworth Productions Ltd

💾

© Photograph: Natasha Zinni/BBC/Brinkworth Productions Ltd

Video shows Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs assaulting singer Cassie in 2016

17 May 2024 at 14:46

Hotel surveillance cameras at InterContinental Hotel in Los Angeles captured incident Combs had vehemently denied

A newly released video shows Sean “Diddy” Combs manhandling and kicking singer Cassie Ventura – his former girlfriend – in plain view of hotel surveillance cameras in 2016, before the rapper, music producer and businessman rapidly settled a lawsuit that she brought against him this past November, according to footage exclusively obtained by CNN.

The video in question illustrates in the most graphic nature possible one of the beatings alleged and described in Ventura’s lawsuit, which Combs had vehemently denied.

Continue reading...

💾

© Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

💾

© Photograph: Frazer Harrison/Getty Images

❌
❌