41 min
Natalie Jane Pearman - 20th November 1992 Still At Large Podcast
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- Society & Culture
1992 seems such a long time ago these days. Charles and Eddie were topping the charts with their falsetto filled soul/disco classic, “Would I lie to you”, the Church of England voted to allow women to become priests, and the Hoxne Hoard of late Roman Gold and Silver was discovered by a metal detectorist in Suffolk, but the most controversial news for the week beginning 16th November 1992, was the High Court decision to allow for the disconnection of feeding tubes to twenty-one-year-old Tony Bland who had been in a coma since the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Such ethical debates around euthanasia and withdrawal of care often spark a lot of National introspection and discussion. When Tony Bland passed away he became the ninety-sixth victim of the needless and avoidable crush during a football game in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. By mid-morning of the twentieth of November almost all coverage washed away by the news that Windsor Castle, the oldest inhabited castle in the world, was on fire. The national news agencies focused all their attention to the burning Royal residence, so the death of a sixteen-year-old street girl with a troubled recent history, was virtually ignored. Her killer is yet to bought to book over her murder.
The age of consent for lawful sexual activity in the United Kingdom is sixteen, in 1992 for heterosexual couples, whilst the age of consent for homosexual sexual activity was still at twenty-one, although that isn’t important to this case, just context. Given that by the time Natalie’s life was so tragically taken by a stranger in the night, she had already been working as a prostitute since before she was of the legal age of consent, it appears that she had fallen into the hands of group of predators.
1992 seems such a long time ago these days. Charles and Eddie were topping the charts with their falsetto filled soul/disco classic, “Would I lie to you”, the Church of England voted to allow women to become priests, and the Hoxne Hoard of late Roman Gold and Silver was discovered by a metal detectorist in Suffolk, but the most controversial news for the week beginning 16th November 1992, was the High Court decision to allow for the disconnection of feeding tubes to twenty-one-year-old Tony Bland who had been in a coma since the Hillsborough disaster in 1989. Such ethical debates around euthanasia and withdrawal of care often spark a lot of National introspection and discussion. When Tony Bland passed away he became the ninety-sixth victim of the needless and avoidable crush during a football game in Sheffield, South Yorkshire. By mid-morning of the twentieth of November almost all coverage washed away by the news that Windsor Castle, the oldest inhabited castle in the world, was on fire. The national news agencies focused all their attention to the burning Royal residence, so the death of a sixteen-year-old street girl with a troubled recent history, was virtually ignored. Her killer is yet to bought to book over her murder.
The age of consent for lawful sexual activity in the United Kingdom is sixteen, in 1992 for heterosexual couples, whilst the age of consent for homosexual sexual activity was still at twenty-one, although that isn’t important to this case, just context. Given that by the time Natalie’s life was so tragically taken by a stranger in the night, she had already been working as a prostitute since before she was of the legal age of consent, it appears that she had fallen into the hands of group of predators.
41 min