What about when MOM is the abuser?

On Monday October 6, 1997 the BBC aired a show called The Sexual Abuse by Women of Children and Teenagers. I wanted to post complete transcripts of the show and this is part 2 of that. Be warned that some of the content can be disturbing and graphic.





Warning: This programme contains explicit descriptions of attacks and the emotional and physical damage they have caused, which some viewers may find distressing.




Tina:

Narrator:
Reaction to 28 year old Tina Purser's relationship with another 12 year old boy demonstrates society's reluctance to even associate women with sexual abuse. Purser, a trained nurse and mother of four secretly abused the 12 year old for two years.

Interviewer:
When did she make her first sexual approach? How did she do it?

Mother:
Apparently not long after he was 12. Her own children she'd sent round to the local park to play. Our son was in the house and she was just doing her housework and apparently while she was cleaning the bathroom she just turned around to our son and said how would you like this and actually abused him - she masturbated him on that first occasion, with him apparently leaning against the door. Afterwards he just cleaned himself up and she said "You'd better pop off and play with the children now and I'll finish the housework and see you later."

Interviewer:
Do you think she targeted him?

Mother:
Definitely. She went for that blonde gorgeous little boy. She used her son to get him. She used her son to get him over to play. She used her son to do the things that our son liked doing. If our son liked certain videos, she'd get her son to like them too.

Interviewer:
On any level do you understand what she was getting out of a relationship with a 12 year old boy?

Mother:
None whatsoever. If he'd have been a Chippendale, yes, but a 12 year old boy, no. I can only presume that she was getting from it sex, and didn't have the problems of a grown up man and demands of a grown up man and a full blown relationship. This was just easy sex.

Narrator:
It took secret tape recordings by a private detective to convince the authorities that Tina Purser was abusing the boy, albeit he appeared to consent. The family were distressed the media reported the relationship as an affair.

Interviewer:
Would you say what they were having was an affair?

Mother:
No. She raped him. She raped him hundreds of times and robbed him of six years of his childhood. I had a gorgeous little boy and now I've got a very aggressive moody teenager.

Narrator:
Tina Purser was found guilty of two indecent assault charges, but the sentence was just two years probation and the judge said he didn't see Purser as a future risk to children.

Society excuses female abusers

Michelle Elliott:
What tends to happen is that the female sexual abuser is excused in a way. "She must have been misguided", or it was a "chronicled affair". For example an affair with a 34 year old woman and a ten year old boy. I mean we wouldn't have said that about a man. And what happens is that the sentences are more lenient. The judges might even think "Well a woman really couldn't have done this - it must have been a mistake". And they usually get probation or they walk free. A man doing that would be locked up.

Narrator:
That's because men have long been seen as both capable of sexual abusing children and as being the main perpetrators. That still holds true; they are, but there is increasing evidence that far more women sexually abuse children than previously thought.

Michelle Elliott:
In the past the statistics have indicated that perhaps 2-5% of abusers are female. I think, based on the people who've contacted me, that that is probably much higher, maybe as high as 25%.