The wrath of social media was poker hot on Tuesday.
People were reacting to a news story. And they were furious.
“Liar”, said one; “attention seeking wannabe,” another. “Vile,” screamed yet another.
Who was on the receiving end, I wondered. And what had they done to deserve such ire?
Had a despot dictator committed war crimes? Had Nicola Sturgeon admitted to pilfering her local puggie machine in Ladbrokes, Uddingston?
No. The focus of this outpouring was Rebekah Vardy, a footballers’ wife, who had accused the Jehovah’s Witnesses of covering up the sexual abuse she had suffered as a child.
The volume of disdain and distrust, on that basis alone, makes no sense.
You’ll always get one mad hatter trolling anyone and everyone.
But Twitter was displaying a mob mentality here – a rounding up of haters who wanted to be heard.
The pinch of salt required to believe a Rebekah Vardy story. #gmb pic.twitter.com/QpaOIGhhsN
— Liam Grayhurst (@lgrayhurst01) May 16, 2023
In many cases, these were people whose feeds showed them to be sane, rounded individuals, who didn’t make a habit of being mean or irrational.
But in this instance, context is everything.
Rebekah Vardy trolled over child sex abuse claims
Rebekah Vardy, the wife of Leceister City striker Jamie, famously had a high profile court case against fellow WAG Coleen Rooney last year.
Rooney had publicly accused Vardy of selling stories about her to a newspaper. So Vardy sued for defamation and suffered a humiliating loss in court. The evidence pointed to her being two-faced at best, with the ability to cause emotional harm to her friend in a premeditated way.
Tuesday’s news story had nothing to do with the Wagatha Christie trial, however.
Instead, it addressed the subject matter of a Chanel 4 documentary featuring Vardy, which alleges she was sexually abused by a member of the Jehovah’s Witnesses between the ages of 11 and 15, and that elders in the community had covered it up.
Promoting the show on ITV1’s Good Morning Britain, Vardy said: “I was scared of what the consequences of speaking out would actually do.”
It would appear she had every reason to fear the reaction.
Her critics, unable to separate their feelings of dislike of her on previous form, attacked her for speaking out.
We are all entitled to our opinions. But entitled to assume a woman who alleges she has been sexually abused as a child is lying?
Surely we are better than that.
Rebekah Vardy abuse allegations deserve fair hearing
The fact of the matter is we do not know the truth here. But Channel 4 does not go making documentaries accusing religious organisations of heinous crimes, with no evidence whatsoever.
And it is an unsavoury truth, but a truth all the same, that children are being sexually abused behind closed doors in our city and every city in the UK.
I’d wager that seeing a high profile woman speak out might help others to see that they could too.
And if it helps one victim, is that not worth it?
"From the age of 12-years-old I was being abused and instead of being supported, I was blamed."
Rebekah Vardy grew up as a Jehovah's Witness. She shares her experience of how the religious organisation handled her allegations of being sexually abused as a child. pic.twitter.com/6Kjdqezznd
— Channel 4 Dispatches (@C4Dispatches) May 15, 2023
Calling Rebekah Vardy names for speaking out is not where we are as a society need to be on this issue.
Jumping in as judge and jury is likely to have the opposite effect on anyone thinking of coming forward.
If Vardy is proven to be lying, it would be the final curtain for her dignity.
But she deserves the benefit of the doubt.
Because if we deny her that, we make others who have suffered sexual abuse fear they won’t get it either. And a fair hearing is the very least that they deserve.
Conversation