News

www.fireinice.co.uk
Fire in Ice is a self-help project run by and for men who have experienced child abuse, especially those who were abused in children's homes. It has its origins in Operation Care, the Merseyside Police investigation into historical institutional child abuse. Taking statements from survivors of abuse, the police failed to understand the traumatic consequences of their doing so. "I want this website to reflect the positive feeling that Fire in Ice has been able to give to many hundreds of men over the past few years," says Matthew Byrne. And it is doing just that. This small, simple-to-use site includes male survivor life stories in the form of poems and prose. The self-help pack, which covers "controlling panic and sudden distress", "beginning to feel" and "coping with crisis", is particularly useful. The crimes suffered by these men scorches the soul and melts the heart.

www.factnotfiction.org.uk
Whereas Fire in Ice immerses its outrage in a quiet dignity, there is nothing silent about this site, run by False Allegations against Carers and Teachers (Fact). While police methods clearly leave something to be desired for alleged abusers and, let's not forget, the abused (see above), Fact sees it as "a horrendous witch-hunt!". Fact was also set up after Operation Care, but this time over the perceived miscarriage of a 12-year sentence for Basil Williams-Rigby, a residential care worker with the Liverpool Catholic Social Services. Nonetheless, its tabloid approach (as in the headline, "Are you aware of the large amounts of compensation available for those claiming to have been abused?" - speculating that people are interested only in money) clearly struck a chord with the home affairs select committee inquiry into the investigation of child abuse. One of Fact's aims, to impose time limits for bringing of allegations of sexual abuse, has been recommended.