Post in Too funny for words!!!

May 12 20:20 UTC

Tom Duncan last week wrote the following in his "Personal view" Page:

"A boy of 14 and a girl of 13 were 'married' in the Central pub in Barking
Road.

It was a Polish gypsy 'wedding' which, following tradition, meant the 'bride'
and 'groom' had sex the night before.

As the ceremony has no standing in law and it would be difficult to make an
offence stick, it seems neither Scotland Yard nor the Home Office can do
anything about it.

I suppose the best we can do is hope the kids have a happy life."

The Daily Mail ran with the story today:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=565614&in_page_id=1770

I was a bit taken aback with Tom's view; just because the "event" had no
standing in law does not mean that a law has not been broken - especially as he
is of the understanding that the two minors had sexual intercourse (this is
refuted by the mother of the girl in the Mail article). An organised dog-fight
has no standing in law. Furthermore, I thought that it was true to form that he
didn't mention Newham's Social Services or whether or not it has investigated
this case.

I would have thought that, as the Council is keen to promote good parenting, it
would be incumbent on Council Officials to investigate cases of under-aged sex
(especially if it is promoted by the children's parents) or any other case of
child abuse which, I would argue, this clearly is.