It makes me wonder how many things in my life I remember might not have really happened or unfolded differently that I remember them doing.

Yeah, a friend of mine and I were talking about this once. She was talking about a dinner we had gone to, and I had no recollection of it. But then I went and found an old diary post, and sure enough, there it was. But even though I knew it happened and I was there, I couldn't really remember it. So she wondered whether that really counted.

We don't know enough to say for sure that he ever molested any child.

You know what? We do have enough information on that point. It wasn't proved in court because he paid off the best case with $25 million. But by journalistic standards of what is verifiable? There's plenty of corroborating evidence.

Wasn't the 80's the time of the recovered memories stuff?

Recovered memories and also planted memories. It's been demonstrated pretty often that, with kids under about 5 or so, if you ask them "Did X happen to you?" and they say no the first time, and then a little later you go back and ask again, once you do it enough times, the kid will not only say "Yes," but will actually believe that it did happen and be able to describe in detail how it happened.

(The study I remember seeing on this was, once a week, a researcher would ask each kid, "Did you ever get your hand caught in a mousetrap?" First week, kids say no. By the third week, kids say "I don't know." By the fifth week or so, kids were pretty much all answering "Yes," and within another few weeks telling about how it happened in the basement and hurt a lot and they yelled and daddy came running downstairs and mommy put a bandage on it and all kinds of stuff like that.)

It makes me wonder how many things in my life I remember might not have really happened or unfolded differently that I remember them doing.

Oh yeah, something like that came up recently with me and my sister with some situation or other years in the past that I remembered as clear as day - and she did too, only totally, completely differently.

I have an anecdote I'm quite partial to that a friend inserted herself into a bit of that she missed, and I don't even know where to start. She'd already gone home! She's only heard me talk about it! I know it was just the three of us, because she doesn't have the T-shirt.

At least, I think that's why she doesn't have the T-shirt. It's how I recall it.

I don't have Hec's certainty, but I think evidence strongly points to some measure of pedophilia. I also think he was a tortured soul and a musical genius.

Yeah, this is wriggly can of worms for sure.

When a family takes money rather than taking it to court (and possibly saving other children if the person is a molester), you have to wonder a bit about their intentions.

That goes both ways. $25 million dollars also buys a lot of therapy and keeps your family out of the media circus of a trial against the single biggest celebrity in the world. And I think it's just as human to take $25 million, call it even and let other families look out for themselves, as it is to decide no amount of money is worth your child's suffering and other families need to be protected from this predator.

I can see both sides of that, and feel like a family taking the money tells us nothing about the veracity of their claims.

I have only two or three memories from my young childhood that I trust, because I've heard so many stories that I can recreate them. Some of those memories are almost third-person, because I can see myself instead of just having the memory of seeing the event.

Can you not conceive without losing weight? Don't get me started about how weight gain and loss are not end all be all indicators of health, wellness, and happiness...

Probably, but I don't know. I do know that I currently weigh too much for my knees and back, etc, and I am worried about what the extra strain of pregnancy would do to my body as it currently is. I also wish to be better able to get around, etc before becoming a mother. I really don't feel that my weight is that bad for my height etc, it's just more than my body and disability can handle. I didn't mean to upset anyone with my post, and I'm so sorry if I did.

Anyway, I'm not interested in arguing the facts (such as they are) with you, Trudy. You've already come to a conclusion that I doubt will be swayed.

You're the one using terms like "many many," and dismissing the court appointed psychologist as just an opinion, David. I'm not sure why you're so adamant about the quality of your facts.

The guy I worked with, Trudy, molested dozens (probably more) kids over a 20-year period. These were kids from wealthy families in an elite school. None of them EVER told on him until years later--some of them are just coming forward now. [link]

I can imagine that kids with far less resources and education would be even less likely to speak up.

I am aware that children often don't come forward for years. And that parents allow things to be covered up. And that people of less means are less likely to speak up particularly against an athority figure. The coverups in the Catholic Church have established all those things all too clearly. It is a clear pattern.

It's not a sense of dozens of vague accuasations though, and its not now-Adults insisting every thing was fine -- it's complete radio silence. And its radio silence that ends pretty dramatically with the initial accusations being quickly followed by many others. Even if it took twenty years we'd have heard more by now and we have not.

There could yet be more information. Absolutely. And if there is there will be a landslide of it -- because dozens of victims for decades at a time is what happens. That, actually, is what would sway me because that would be a pedophile. Two victims in thirty years of adulthood is not -- just two victims is fiction.