"Rape of 1 female is 'worse' than the rape of 35 males" claim Sky News

Sky News appear to have stopped sensationalising sex crimes following my request to them for an apology to the estimated 3500 male victims of William Goad, after they claimed a man who may have raped over 100 women was Britain’s most prolific sex offender.

All through the day on the 26th of October 2010 they tried to grip viewers to the story, which, appalling as it was, unfortunately isn’t the truth. They went even further on their news website, by claiming that detectives on the case also believed he was potentially Britain’s most prolific serial sex offender.

Perhaps, they meant that the man in question, John Worboys, was Britain’s most prolific sex offender against women.
However, they made no reference to this and there is no excuse for any news journalist or detective not to know about William Goad.

To put this in to context, it’s the equivalent of saying that the 7/7 bombings in London that killed 52 people, was a worse atrocity than the 9/11 bombings in the USA that killed nearly 3000.

Much as I agree that this is a debate I could not imagine anyone would want, or should get in to – I think most people would agree that Sky News should not be sensationalising crimes just to improve their ratings.

Can you imagine what the victims of William Goad must think when they hear such statements. They were all boys and young men, many of which have committed suicide or turned to hard drugs and thus crime to feed their habits, in order to cope with their turmoil.

Many victims of rape struggle to come to terms with what has happened to them and find it difficult to seek help for many reasons - such as stigma, embarrassment and not wanting to relive the terrible experience that they suffered. The last thing male victims want to hear is that the rape of females is considered to be worse than that of males, as it just makes them feel that they should be ‘more manly’ and get over what has happened without getting help.

Admittedly, some people may say I’m biased on this issue, as I just managed to escape from William Goad and one of his accomplices in Derbyshire during the mid 1980’s. Two friends, however, were not so lucky and left details of their ordeal in suicide notes.

Other young males I know in rural Derbyshire, that travelled along country lanes by foot or on bikes at night have since been institutionalised, hence I’ve spent many years raising awareness on these issues. Hence, I know first hand of the extreme ignorance about the general publics views on male rape.            

   The most common replies I get are:

 “That sort of thing doesn’t happen around here, it only happens in London” –

 “Don’t go telling everyone about that or you’ll bring the reputation of the area down, and the house prices” or

“You’d be better off not saying anything about it because it won’t happen again round here.”


The police officer investigating my claims in the 90's said "I've driven around the area, and I want you to forget these silly allegations"

The extent of William Goads’ crimes will never be known as his crimes started in the 1960’s and he was finally jailed in 2004. In Plymouth it is believed he created a crime wave – in Derbyshire he did much the same, as my friends both turned in to hard drug users and violent criminals. He is known to have travelled and raped young males along the way from Plymouth to Manchester.

Perhaps due to the recession, Sky has employed fewer researchers or lower caliber journalists – an public apology though costs nothing!