‘Better school sex lessons would have helped Karen’ – MP
MP Simon Danczuk has said that better school sex education would have helped his estranged-wife Karen get help when she was abused as a child.
The Rochdale MP said Ms Danczuk, a former Kingsway councillor, would have been more likely to seek support if she had been taught about relationships as a youngster.
She waived her right to anonymity by revealing that she was sexually abused between the age of six or seven until her mid teens by her older brother Michael Burke.
He was jailed for 15 years in December for sex assaults on her and two other victims.
Speaking during a Westminster Hall debate, Mr Danczuk said sex and relationships education must be available from a young age as it could help safeguard children from abuse.
The MP, currently suspended by the Labour Party, said: “[Karen] readily admits that she would have been more likely to disclose to the authorities that she was being abused if she had received relationship education.
“The fact that the abuse she suffered took place at home stresses the importance of this sort of education in schools.
“Likewise, children in care and others who lack the family support structures may benefit from school providing information about relationships.
“Karen’s case highlights that 11 is too late to start offering relationship advice in schools, as her abuse started when she was around six years old.
“Therefore it is imperative that children are made aware of the power in relationships much earlier in their education.”
Quoting Ms Danczuk, who is a patron of the National Association of People Abused in Childhood, he said: “The thing to remember with cases like mine is I didn’t know any other life.
“I didn’t know that this shouldn’t be happening. There was nobody saying it shouldn’t be this way.
“If there had been, maybe I would have recognised sooner that what I was going through was wrong.”
Mr Danczuk’s comments came amid calls for statutory sex and relationships education in all state-funded schools, including academies, free schools schools.
Under current rules, it is compulsory for secondary and primary school pupils in maintained schools, but parents can choose to opt out of certain aspects.