Do Old Sins Cast Long Shadows?

[sandyRoe]

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/former-tory-faces-child-sex-1714162

[ladybirder]

Oh Yes sandy, they do.

[boxtops]

apparently so....

[douglas9401]

Of course the longest shadows are cast as the sun is about to set, then it's so often a case of blundering about in the dark trying to use hindsight to justify failings of those charged with protecting us.
The long arm of the law seems doomed to be just a tad short when trying to feel the collar of the powerful.
'Twas ever so.

[anotheoldgit]

/// The former high-ranking MP, who we cannot name ///

The question to be ask is why can't he be named?

Others have and others have not, which makes one wonder should anyone facing such serious charges ever be named until they have been found guilty?

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/9875664/Sex-crime-suspects-should-not-be-named.html

[sandyRoe]

The truth is always a defence in libel. If the Mirror was sure of their story they should have published and then invited the man they named to sue.

[sandyRoe]

In 2009 this man was cleared of charges of offences against young girls. But the publicity from the trial prompted other victims to come forward and he was eventually sentences to 8 years in prison.
Without the publicity he might have got away with his crimes.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-21200388

[FredPuli43]

He can't be named because of our law on defamation. If he is arrested, it is not defamatory to say that he has been arrested.

And anyone who thinks that the truth ( "justification" in lawyers' language) will stop a libel action, or even win one, has never heard the lawyers' saying "The bigger the truth, the bigger the libel"