Accusation

accused
Top Martial Arts Coach AccusedA Top British Martial Arts Coach has been accused of “Inappropriate Behaviour” and has been suspended by his governing body and told not to visit his own club, yet this Coach has told me he has not been informed of what the accusation is or who has accused him. The governing body has informed the local Police who are investigating him and they in turn have not told him of the accusation etc, now if the Coach is telling me the truth then this can open a real can of worms.1) Surely it is the right of every Englishman to be able to face his accuser and their accusation2) Is a man not innocent till proven guiltyAs for us Judo and Sports Coaches if the above is true anyone of us can be accused by some one who has a grudge against us, which could wreck of career, our private life and cause us mental anguish. Child Protection has become paramount in sport and rightly so but it is fast becoming Monster which will extinguish Children Sport altogether. No longer is a Scout Master, Cub Mistress a Junior Judo/Sports Coach looked upon with respect for giving up their time to work and help with children our obsession with Child Protection has made the public look with distain upon this group of well meaning people. WHY DO THEY WANT TO BE WITH CHILDREN? That is the question asked ARE THEY NORMAL is the next one soon no one will want to supervise Children in fact the Ultimate Child Protection is not to let any Adult teach childrenNow before you say Martin is over reacting let me give example at what happened at our club several years ago.One of our Karate Instructors was accused of touching a young teenager inappropriately, the father contacted me and wanted me to deal with the matter which I presume he meant sack the Coach, this I reused to do and told him if was 100% sure of facts he must contact the Police which he subsequently done. I immediately contacted the Coach and told him of the accusation which he denied, I then explained that I would get a meeting of all other Coaches and decide what we would do. All the coaches agreed that the charges brought by the Girl were so outlandish (The assault supposedly took part in front of the whole class yet no one saw the incident) so we decided to allow him to Coach but supervised by one of the other Coaches. His ordeal lasted a Year at the end of 12 months the Police said there was nothing answers for! Was there an apology from the Girl, parent or police NO only a parting word from a Women PC “you got away with it this time?” The Instructor is no longer with us dying in tragic circumstances.Now if the same happened today we would have no option but to suspend him and after the result of a year’s investigation with the Karate Instructor subsequently being proved innocent1) He would be considered a pervert2) The Club would have to close and 50 children would no longer have a club to go to3) All the clubs coaches would be stigmatises (No smoke without fire) coaches would feel obliged to leave and club would have to close which had been in existence for 50 years. For what maybe something as stupid as the Coaches daughter getting a higher gradeMartin Clarke