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> Lang was bailed, but under strict and devastating conditions. Social services had visited his partner at home while he was being interviewed to conduct a “saf

by zkms 10y ago

> Lang was bailed, but under strict and devastating conditions. Social services had visited his partner at home while he was being interviewed to conduct a “safeguarding assessment”, and it was decided he could not live at the family home, visit his son there, or have any unsupervised contact with his son anywhere. “Not being able to look after my kid, it was heartbreaking,” Lang recalled. > He also has a grandson who was 14 months old at the time and was due to undergo a major brain operation while Lang was on bail. He said he felt unable to help the boy’s mother due to the strict conditions. “It was a really fucked-up time. I couldn’t give them any support.” > He was working as a drug recovery worker helping troubled teenagers at the time, and when he informed his employer what had happened, he was suspended immediately. > Their son, meanwhile, suddenly saw his father as unreliable, Lang said, and would cry, not understanding why he had disappeared and couldn’t come home for three weeks. > He remembers his young son asking: “‘Why can’t Daddy come home?’ That brought me to fucking tears. I’m welling up now thinking about it.” > Today, neither he nor his partner is working. Lang is effectively a full-time carer for his disabled mother, and in the years since his arrest his partner developed ME, something they blame on the stress caused by the whole ordeal. He got his career torpedoed, got publicly accused of being a pedo, and had relationships with multiple members of one's family get fucked up, and his father died before he got exonerated. Career and family and relationships with friends -- having all those sources of meaning in your life get instantly eviscerated (in a way that was impossible to predict and that is very difficult to find sympathy from others for) seems like it would induce pretty deep dysfunction in most anyone.

Udik 10y ago
He spent a total of four hours in a police station. Four hours. Then three weeks (three weeks!) at his mother's waiting for his laptop to be scanned. And that's it. Daddy can't come home because he's on a holiday, or on a business trip, and he'll send you a postcard, and now off to bed. Employer, same thing: "horrible mistake, accusing me of something I haven't done, in three weeks I'll come clear" and that's exactly what happens, with excuses from the police. If this has impacts on your work, then you don't have great colleagues for sure.
- bdamm 10y ago
  He didn't know it would be three weeks. Companies that tolerate an employee not showing up for three weeks, and especially because they're under suspicion for child pornography, are exceptionally rare! Look at it from the flip side... nobody knows that this man is innocent. So while the law might be innocent until proven guilty, usually acquaintances aren't so kind. "Where there's smoke there's fire" and all that.
- andybak 10y ago
  I don't know anything about your life so I won't judge but I had a shiver go down my spine when I read this story. Yeah - it might not have affected me as much as this guy. Or maybe not. I know people who've been punched and kicked in a fight and couldn't leave the house for 6 months from anxiety. And I know people that think a fight down the pub is a good night out. I don't know anything about your life but do you know anything about his?
  - Udik 10y ago
    Nope, I don't. But when I think that there's people living through the horror of wars, and then read about somebody who can't cope with three weeks at his mother's and his child crying because daddy isn't at home, and then, quite openly, asking for more money- well, I get some sort of bad reaction. Ah, and just to get some more downvotes- this guy is supposed to be helping troubled teenagers. But he doesn't seem to be able to cope with three weeks of fear and uncertainty.
    - fuckoffmate 10y ago
      Complete ignoring the social aspect in your comments so far
    - emodendroket 10y ago
      Presumably the biggest damage is being made a social pariah because everyone you know thinks you're distributing child pornography.
JumpCrisscross 10y ago
> He got his career torpedoed It sounds like mental health issues torpedoed his career. He "felt unable to go back...[to] work" (emphasis mine) because he "became fearful of working with young females." This made him "paranoid". Nowhere does it say he was fired. Mental health issues are serious, and I do not want to minimize the suffering Mr. Lang subjectively felt. While the police bear some blame for that suffering, they seem to have corrected their error as quickly as reasonably possible, exonerated him and paid him restitution. I think the restitution should have been higher, but that's a separate issue from saying they "torpedoed" his career.
- cookiecaper 10y ago
  That's not really as simple as mental health issues. False allegations of sexual misconduct are a significant risk for any man who works with underage females on a routine basis. If a hostile addict (which, let's be honest, are probably not rare, since these programs are frequently court-ordered) learns that an employee's background may make him more susceptible to such allegations (e.g., a past accusation of pedophilia, justified or not), it could spell a lot of trouble for everyone involved. If it becomes widely known, just the PR cost ("this rehab center employs pedophiles! Use ours instead!") would make his return infeasible. So while he wouldn't be technically barred from returning to work, practically speaking, it makes sense that he wouldn't be able to go back. I agree, however, that the story appears to be a play to exert public pressure on the police force, perhaps to offer a larger compensatory package or settlement (to be honest, I didn't read far enough into the article to see if there is an active lawsuit ongoing). The core issue is that our justice systems badly need some type of modernization. I understand how scary that is, but I think it's approaching time that we face the music. The world has changed at an unprecedented rate over the last 100 years, and it's time to shed some of the baggage we've carried over from centuries past.

by zkms 10y ago

Udik 10y ago

He spent a total of four hours in a police station. Four hours. Then three weeks (three weeks!) at his mother's waiting for his laptop to be scanned. And that's it. Daddy can't come home because he's on a holiday, or on a business trip, and he'll send you a postcard, and now off to bed. Employer, same thing: "horrible mistake, accusing me of something I haven't done, in three weeks I'll come clear" and that's exactly what happens, with excuses from the police. If this has impacts on your work, then you don't have great colleagues for sure.

bdamm 10y ago
He didn't know it would be three weeks. Companies that tolerate an employee not showing up for three weeks, and especially because they're under suspicion for child pornography, are exceptionally rare! Look at it from the flip side... nobody knows that this man is innocent. So while the law might be innocent until proven guilty, usually acquaintances aren't so kind. "Where there's smoke there's fire" and all that.
andybak 10y ago
I don't know anything about your life so I won't judge but I had a shiver go down my spine when I read this story. Yeah - it might not have affected me as much as this guy. Or maybe not. I know people who've been punched and kicked in a fight and couldn't leave the house for 6 months from anxiety. And I know people that think a fight down the pub is a good night out. I don't know anything about your life but do you know anything about his?
- Udik 10y ago
  Nope, I don't. But when I think that there's people living through the horror of wars, and then read about somebody who can't cope with three weeks at his mother's and his child crying because daddy isn't at home, and then, quite openly, asking for more money- well, I get some sort of bad reaction. Ah, and just to get some more downvotes- this guy is supposed to be helping troubled teenagers. But he doesn't seem to be able to cope with three weeks of fear and uncertainty.
  - fuckoffmate 10y ago
    Complete ignoring the social aspect in your comments so far
  - emodendroket 10y ago
    Presumably the biggest damage is being made a social pariah because everyone you know thinks you're distributing child pornography.

JumpCrisscross 10y ago

> He got his career torpedoed It sounds like mental health issues torpedoed his career. He "felt unable to go back...[to] work" (emphasis mine) because he "became fearful of working with young females." This made him "paranoid". Nowhere does it say he was fired. Mental health issues are serious, and I do not want to minimize the suffering Mr. Lang subjectively felt. While the police bear some blame for that suffering, they seem to have corrected their error as quickly as reasonably possible, exonerated him and paid him restitution. I think the restitution should have been higher, but that's a separate issue from saying they "torpedoed" his career.

cookiecaper 10y ago
That's not really as simple as mental health issues. False allegations of sexual misconduct are a significant risk for any man who works with underage females on a routine basis. If a hostile addict (which, let's be honest, are probably not rare, since these programs are frequently court-ordered) learns that an employee's background may make him more susceptible to such allegations (e.g., a past accusation of pedophilia, justified or not), it could spell a lot of trouble for everyone involved. If it becomes widely known, just the PR cost ("this rehab center employs pedophiles! Use ours instead!") would make his return infeasible. So while he wouldn't be technically barred from returning to work, practically speaking, it makes sense that he wouldn't be able to go back. I agree, however, that the story appears to be a play to exert public pressure on the police force, perhaps to offer a larger compensatory package or settlement (to be honest, I didn't read far enough into the article to see if there is an active lawsuit ongoing). The core issue is that our justice systems badly need some type of modernization. I understand how scary that is, but I think it's approaching time that we face the music. The world has changed at an unprecedented rate over the last 100 years, and it's time to shed some of the baggage we've carried over from centuries past.