RAP SHEET on R.A.P.E.

If there was anything I've written prior to this and you didn't bother to read, it's ok. However, THIS entry you might not want to miss.

First things first; NO, I've not been raped, neither any of my family or friends. (God forbids anything of this nature ever happens to them.) The following though, is a true story which I encountered first hand.

Have you ever wondered if something of this sort; rape, molestation, abuse, etc., etc...were to ever befall your children or any significant member of your family, would you be the first to know? Or would a complete stranger be the one to blow the whistle for you, on your behalf?

Today I relate to you, not the details of the crime, but the torrent of thoughts running through my mind, of the numerous violations that this crime has unearthed.

You watch on TV, CSI or some other police-drama flick and the bad guy fits the bill and the victim; a bunch of nerves on the brink of desperation.

And then there was this:

Girl, 14, outwardly unscathed, attending to a mother who wants the perpetrator home, simply because he was all they ever had and 'everybody makes mistakes' and he has promised never to touch that nubile flesh AGAIN. And so the mummy's gone to hire a lawyer who will save her sweetheart though it would be 'kind' wouldn't it, if the police JUST brought him home.

A girl, 14, having to hear, despite his written confessions to the heinous crimes, how little half-sister doesn't seem to know that her biological dad had been really, really bad.

A girl, 14, who has had to see, for the first time in months, the stranger who reported her plea. "How do I react? Do I hug and say thank you to thee? I can't possibly do that for mummy is here, you see."

A girl 14, who has performed so well..that even her Social Worker can't seem to detect..the broken lines that MUST rest within.

Because how on earth can one be 14 and not be afflicted with wounds unseen? I'm not here to judge but I cannot, but not react.