Attitudes towards defilement of girls under 16 years of age in Britain.

Ted

I've got no inhibitions

So keep your keys out of your ignition

I steal a car like I got the curse

I can't resist the old lady's purse

Jailbait you look so good to me

Jailbait won't you set me free

Jailbait you look fine fine fine

I know I've got to have you in a matter of time

Well I don't care if you're just thirteen

You look too good to be true

I just know that you're probably clean

There's one lil' thing I got do to you

Jailbait you look so good to me

Jailbait won't you set me free

Jailbait you look fine fine fine

I know I've got to have you in a matter of time

So tell your mama that I'm back in town

She likes us boys when it's time to get down

She's got this craving for the underage

I just might be your mama's brand new rage

Jailbait you look so good to me

Jailbait won't you set me free

Jailbait you look fine fine fine

I know I got to have you in a matter of time

Honey you you you look so nice

She's young she's tender

Won't you please surrender

She's so fine she's mine

All the time, all mine mine

It's all right baby

It's quite all right I asked your mama

Wait a minute officer

Don't put those handcuffs on me

Put them on her and I'll share her with you

Can I just clarify that, although this thread is about the UK attitudes, the age of sexual consent in Ireland is 17. Just so that it's clear.

Sure it was part of an overall massive court case against the men and also the police and social services. This was going on for years, but police were afraid to touch the subject over fears of racism. Sarah Champion, a very liberal Labour MP for the area, lost the party whip after she said there was a specific problem with men of Pakistanti heritage (a certain part of Pakistan it must be added for fairness) targeting white girls.

https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sara-rowbotham-sarah-champion_uk_59bbad52e4b02da0e14106d5

They would ply them with drink and drugs and well.....I don't need to go into detail.

I see the post has been deleted too - completely. Didn't think that was possible on the new site? The thankers were quite predictable really - they saw the word racism and jumped in

I think you should research the topic a bit.

In short, yes it would have been different. This was going on for years, across multiple towns in the north of England. There have been court cases, documentaries, books...Also, there was a race element to this. Not to be repeated here as its disgusting.

Do white men abuse girls? Of course they do. Is it organised on an industrial scale across multiple locations by a group who make up a small percentage of the UK population? No.

Sometimes the truth is inconvenient.

Yes. But surely there is mitigation in the fact that the 18 year old he married (at the age of 54) stayed married to him for the rest of his life? 30 odd years.

This.

People, today, judging what happened before many of them were even born, never mind sentient, are barking up a tree they have no idea about. Before the 80's, 16 was considered to be a young adult. It's only quite recently that 16 was turned into a "child".

The late 70's and through the 80's and 90's saw numerous societal changes as to what constituted an adult, to the point where today we don't really reach adulthood until we're in our 20's. Back then, however, most people considered you an "adult" when you left school and got a job, and for a huge number of folk that was at 16, especially if you were of a working class background. It wasn't uncommon at all to be married at 16 or 17 years of age and to have knocked out a kid at 18.

For generations and up until the latter part of the 1970's, that was the norm for a lot of people, while today we view it as something that probably shouldn't happen. My own parents left school at 16 and from that point they weren't considered "children" any more. My dad went to Liverpool and joined the army. My mother went and worked in a shop. They were married and had their first kid by 18 and all of that was considered perfectly normal for most of the 20th Century.

Now, of course, none of the above is to be viewed as some sort of excuse for predatory behaviour by reprehensible characters. But when we are talking about those times it's always important to consider what were the norms of society in the period in question, and to not view things through the prism of what we consider to be "correct" behaviour today.

These days we, generally, have a greater understanding of our growth and mental development and at what ages we reach certain points of that development. We understand today that at 16 years old we are still at a pretty delicate stage and that delicate stage can last until we're in our 20's. At 16 we are no longer children (16 is not a "child"), but we are not adults either and it's debatable as to what point we become "adults". There are plenty of people in their 20's who would still be harbouring the same immaturity they had in their teens and are just as susceptible to uninformed decision making.

In 1975 if you were a woman the same age as a pop/rock/tv star you were probably married with 5 kids

The very concept of a "teenager" never really existed until the mid 50's and that was largely down to American marketeering. The American "teen" became a hot sales area, especially for music. Before that, it wasn't a thing.

My grandfather and his brothers fought in WWI and all of them were over 18 when they joined up. But there are stories of very young boys being accepted into regiments and the recruiters turning a blind eye. A common joke at recruitment stations was to ask the young volunteer who gave his real age to "go around the block and come back when you're 18". 18 was the legal age technically, but in order to flood the ranks boys much younger than that were let through as it were.

My dad was in WWII and, as said, joined when he was 16. In the 40's there were tighter restrictions than there were during the Great War, but young lads still managed to find their way into the rank and file.

These days, any military body caught doing something like that would be subject to some serious penalties indeed. But back then there were different standards as you say.

Will you ever get off my case? It’s getting boring at this stage.

No one's defending anything, as well you know. Just pointing out that attitudes were different back then - which is stating a fact, and defending nothing.

Attitudess to women's rights were completely different in the 80s,90s, of course it was against the law, but famous men djs, pop stars were known for having sex with fans some over 18, some younger . Laws are more strongly enforced, and there's alot more scrutiny of everyone on social media. The world has greatly changed in the last 10 years, basically everyone has smartphones, every famous person is photographed every where they go at every social event. It's a cliche certain actors only go out with women who are 19 or 20 , they avoid any woman over 25 years of age