Just stumbled across this:
THE STORY – CLICK HERE!
Stinks of a huge cover up between the family and/or the police if you ask me. If it's all true...
Following on from some of the details in this blog, I had a quick look at the British Newspaper Archive and found this frankly horrifying front page article from the Sunday People dated 18 May 1980. I do understand that it was written 40 years ago but the wording is almost unbelievable.
It is an interview with John Tate discussing details of an "affair" he had with a 10 year old girl 4 years before Genette disappeared. This is what was referred to in the blog quoted above. It talks of how he "seduced" a 10 year old girl, and had an "affair" that lasted about a year. He says "everyone is entitled to one mistake and I should be allowed to forget mine" . He says she cuddled him and "it was the first time anyone had cuddled up to me in that way" and "I took her over. I loved her. The affection grew but then it suddenly stopped - from her point of view rather than mine"
He then goes on to say he had nothing to do with Genette's disappearance and that there were rumours Genette found out about what happened with this girl and ran away. He says as far as he knows that was not the case.
He was arrested when police later found out but was never prosecuted on "humanitarian grounds" due to what he and his family had gone through with Genette's disappearance. He only came forward publicly after the girl's mother was apparently going to sell the story first. His wife forgave him when she found out and they remained together for 18 months before they eventually split up.
I've attached the articles here and hopefully you can zoom in and read them but they make for horrifying reading. A man in his 30s does not have a "love affair" or "seduce" a 10 year old, he abuses them. There's no other word for it. I know times have changed, but the fact he so openly spoke about this to the press is remarkable. Surely even then people must have been alarmed. I'm not saying this has any bearing on Genette's disappearance but it does make you wonder what she saw or heard growing up with a father capable of this.
I've read articles in the thread sympathising with John Tate and losing a child is something no one would wish on anyone but after reading this, my sympathy is with Genette and her mother only frankly.
