It is possibly unfair to infer that Kathy Hook is a dog – bitch might have been better. ‘Man bites Bitch’ – doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
She was voted ‘Unsung Hero’ by BBC Sports – not on Youtube, but here is a link to the BBC report. She is a 6th Dan – in fact the highest rated woman in Taekwondo. She runs a Taekwondo Club in Newcastle.
She used to run the club with Paul Ford, but they had a falling out. Ms Hook has had quite a few fallings out with people. She has not long finished a suspension imposed by the Sports Resolution Council.
She is a highly competitive lady, and doesn’t like to lose – anything.
When she fell out with Paul Ford, she threw his young children out of the Martial Arts Club they had been running together. Paul would tell you that this was the first act of retaliation.
She didn’t stop there though – she resorted to the weapon du jour of the modern woman – and claimed that Paul was pedophile. She printed up A4 leaflets on her trusty computer and pushed them through the front door of the neighbours houses. As you do.
“Do you know you have a paedophile on your street?”
“Arrested last year – found with videos of children in his house.”
The Police merely gave her a ‘caution’ for this act. It’s not that serious in their eyes, making a false allegation.
The local pedo-hunters took it seriously though; ‘a woman has made an accusation and the man isn’t in prison’ – Cover-up! Victim Blaming! and all the other ritual chants the mob trot out on these occasions.
Vigilantes complied with this call to arms, and dutifully beat Paul up.
Fortunately, they didn’t set fire to him on the village green in front of the local children, as has happened to others falsely accused of pedophilia, and he managed to limp away.
Just as far as his solicitor. He’s not a wealthy man, not in the Freddie Starr league – but he took her to court for Libel.
Yesterday, Sheffield County Court awarded him £10,000 in libel damages, £1,850 for his legal advice costs, and £650 for his own time on the case.
It’s nowhere near sufficient compensation for the nightmare he has lived through – and it is, apparently, more than Ms Hook possesses, so he probably won’t see a penny.
Had Kathy Hook taken her complaint to the police instead of sending out those leaflets, we would never have known who she was – she would have been granted anonymity – for life.
Should there be a second incident of her making accusations of sexual assault against children – the unfortunate recipient of future allegations would not have been able to google this account and know that she had done it before.
We are frequently told that it is necessary to name ‘alleged pedophiles’ in order that ‘other victims’ may come forward and know that they are not alone – the same applies to those who make allegations.
They too need to be named, so that others pilloried by their allegations can be similarly reassured and emboldened to take action. It has only just occurred to me that it could be the same determined groupie who has made allegations to Operation Yewtree against every famous person he/she ever met – and we would never know.
It cuts both ways.