I really don't know what to a make of it. If someone was abused 45 years ago why wait until now to deal with it?
But having waited for 45 years what do you hope to get out of it?
I'm not sure that 'wait'/'waiting' are appropriate words to use, in this context. After 45 years, most of us, will be an entirely different person, by comparison with what we may have been in our formative years.
I'll give you an analogy . . . . . . .
I first started working in a bar (in Altrincham) when I was 17, as a glass-collector. I was right at the bottom of any hierarchy that may have existed. Like most lads of 17, I was pretty naive about life. I frequently suffered verbal abuse from customers; I was 'effed' & 'jeffed' at, any number of times and fair few comments were worse than that. It sounds really daft now, but at the time, I actually thought that I was 'at fault' for some reason and that I deserved this abuse. I was getting this, from older & 'wiser' people than myself, so they must have been the ones 'in the right'. At 17 and in a new job, I was low on self-esteem and anxious to please both my employers and their customers. The
last thing that I was going to do. was to make any waves.
Why the scumbags do this ?
Because they could - pure & simple. The word of a callow glass collector, would bear no weight, by comparison of an esteemed customer. Oh yes, not once have I experienced this kind of thing from a female customer - the gobshites were always men.
After a while, I developed strategies to deal with the 'grief' that I was receiving; I have to say, that this 'treatment' was given to most of the new and
young staff. Many years on, and I look back and wonder why I ever put up with that kind of stuff - I'd deal with it so much better now - having the benefit of decades of life experience. At that time, I 'accepted' it, 'cos I just thought that it was 'part & parcel' of the job.
Of course, the scumbags that upset me years ago, wouldn't try to do the same to me now; 'cos as we get older, we give out different 'vibes'; they'd just know that it wouldn't work - and that I'm too old to put up with such sh1te. I'm much better prepared (mentally & physically), to deal with a 'difficult' situation.
In the same way, I can appreciate why rape victims don't come forward; who is going to believe the word of a teenager, when set against that of a plausible male, who will have more life experience ?
IMO, it isn't a matter of rape victims 'waiting' to come forward; but rather, being mentally prepared to cope with the trauma & stress that a trial would inevitably bring.
