Showing posts with label Mia Farrow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Mia Farrow. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 31, 2018
Woody Allen Child Abuse Allegations, Larry Nassar: 265 young women say they were abused by former USA Gymnastic doctor
Woody Allen, Mia Farrow, Dylan Farrow: A Timeline
A look at major events in the complicated history of Mr. Allen and the Farrow family.
By Sopan Deb and Deborah Leiderman
Jan. 31, 2018
Woody Allen is facing new criticism — including from some actors in his films — over allegations by his adopted daughter Dylan Farrow that he molested her in 1992 when she was a child. The Allen-Farrow story has its roots in the 1970s and encompasses several major events in the lives of Mr. Allen; his former partner Mia Farrow; and their daughter Dylan....
December 1991
Mr. Allen adopts Dylan Farrow and Moses Farrow, one of Ms. Farrow’s sons, who she adopted in 1980. Mr. Allen, who is 56, begins an affair with Ms. Farrow’s 21-year-old daughter, Soon-Yi Previn around this time.
Jan. 13, 1992
Ms. Farrow discovers nude photographs of Soon-Yi Previn in Mr. Allen’s apartment. He later testifies in court that he thought the affair would remain secret....
March 18, 1993
After a seven-month inquiry by a team of child abuse investigators at Yale-New Haven hospital, Mr. Allen’s lawyers say he has been cleared of molesting Dylan Farrow. Ms. Farrow’s legal team calls the confidential report “incomplete and inaccurate.” The report, which was commissioned by Connecticut law enforcement, was never officially released, but media outlets reported some of its contents....
June 7, 1993
Mr. Allen loses the custody battle. Acting Justice Elliott Wilk of the State Supreme Court says Mr. Allen is “self-absorbed, untrustworthy and insensitive.” He denies Mr. Allen visitation rights with Dylan Farrow.
Sept. 24, 1993
Frank Maco, a state’s attorney in Connecticut, announces that while he has “probable cause” to prosecute Mr. Allen, he would decline to press charges to spare Dylan Farrow the trauma of a trial. Mr. Maco says he believed that Dylan had been molested....
October 2017
The New York Times, and then Ronan Farrow in The New Yorker, publish stories about sexual harassment, abuse and rape allegations against Harvey Weinstein.
Mr. Allen says he feels “sad for Harvey” and warns against “a witch hunt atmosphere.” He later calls Mr. Weinstein “a sad, sick man.”....
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/movies/woody-allen-mia-farrow-dylan-farrow-a-timeline.htmlhttps://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/movies/woody-allen-mia-farrow-dylan-farrow-a-timeline.html
Larry Nassar latest: 265 young women say they were abused by former USA Gymnastic doctor, judge says
It was previously believed the total number of victims was closer to 200
Andrew Buncombe New York
More than 265 people have come forward to say they were sexually abused by the disgraced former gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar, a judge has said.
As Nassar’s third sentencing hearing got underway on Wednesday in Eaton County, Michigan, Judge Janice Cunningham said dozens of women and girls were expected to deliver statements in court. “Some of the victims have chosen not to be identified,” she said.
During a seven-day hearing that concluded last week in nearby Ingham County, more than 150 young women delivered powerful statements confronting Nassar and telling him of the devastating impact he had on their lives.....
As the hearing continued, it was reported that the entire board of directors of USA Gymnastics, which Nassar served as a team doctor for 20 years, had stood down after being told they would otherwise be fired.
Last week, Nassar was sentenced to between 40 to 175 years in prison when he appeared before Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Rosemarie Aquilina....
Around 140 victims have filed a lawsuit against Nassar, USA Gymnastics (USAG) and Michigan State University (MSU), claiming the institutions knew about allegations of abuse years ago and failed to act.
USAG said last week after Olympic officials threatened to decertify the organisation as the sport’s US governing body that its entire board had resigned and sponsors have already backed away ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games.
The United States Olympic Committee, which has been criticised by victims as well, has announced an independent investigation into both its own conduct and that of USAG.
The Michigan attorney general’s office, which prosecuted Nassar, is pursuing a criminal probe into the college over its handling of allegations against Nassar. The university’s president and athletic director stepped down in the wake of Nassar’s sentencing last week....
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/larry-nasser-abuse-sentence-victims-latest-court-judge-michigan-judge-janice-cunningham-a8187926.html
Sunday, February 9, 2014
Dylan Farrow Responds to Woody Allen: 'Distortions and Outright Lies'
- Dylan Farrow Responds to Woody Allen: 'Distortions and Outright Lies'
- 10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody Allen Sexual-Abuse Allegation
- Woody Allen’s 1992 custody suit against Mia Farrow
Dylan Farrow Responds to Woody Allen: 'Distortions and Outright Lies' 2/7/2014 by THR Staff
The director's adopted daughter denies Allen's suggestion that Mia Farrow coached her to say he sexually assaulted her.
Dylan Farrow has responded to an op-ed Woody Allen published in The New York Times Friday.
In the response, provided to The Hollywood Reporter, Farrow denounced Allen's op-ed -- in which he suggested Farrow's mother, Mia Farrow, had coached her to accuse Allen of sexually assaulting her as a child.
"I have never wavered in describing what he did to me. I will carry the memories of surviving these experiences for the rest of my life," Dylan said.
She went on to challenge other points in Allen's op-ed, calling it 'the latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies he has leveled at me for the past 20 years."....
Read Dylan's full response below.
Once again, Woody Allen is attacking me and my family in an effort to discredit and silence me -- but nothing he says or writes can change the truth. For 20 years, I have never wavered in describing what he did to me. I will carry the memories of surviving these experiences for the rest of my life....
His op-ed is the latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies he has leveled at me for the past 20 years. He insists my mother brought criminal charges -- in fact, it was a pediatrician who reported the incident to the police based on my firsthand account. He suggests that no one complained of his misconduct prior to his assault on me -- court documents show that he was in treatment for what his own therapist described as “inappropriate” behavior with me from as early as 1991. He offers a carefully worded claim that he passed a lie detector test -- in fact, he refused to take the test administered by the state police (he hired someone to administer his own test, which authorities refused to accept as evidence). These and other misrepresentations have been rebutted in more detail by independent, highly respected journalists....
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dylan-farrow-responds-woody-allen-678552
10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody Allen Sexual-Abuse Allegation By Maureen Orth February 7 2014
This week, a number of commentators have published articles containing incorrect and irresponsible claims regarding the allegation of Woody Allen’s having sexually abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. As the author of two lengthy, heavily researched and thoroughly fact-checked articles that deal with that allegation—the first published in 1992, when Dylan was seven, and the second last fall, when she was 28—I feel obliged to set the record straight.
1. Mia never went to the police about the allegation of sexual abuse. Her lawyer told her on August 5, 1992, to take the seven-year-old Dylan to a pediatrician, who was bound by law to report Dylan’s story of sexual violation to law enforcement and did so on August 6.
2. Allen had been in therapy for alleged inappropriate behavior toward Dylan with a child psychologist before the abuse allegation was presented to the authorities or made public....
3. Allen refused to take a polygraph administered by the Connecticut state police. Instead, he took one from someone hired by his legal team. The Connecticut state police refused to accept the test as evidence....
4. Allen subsequently lost four exhaustive court battles—a lawsuit, a disciplinary charge against the prosecutor, and two appeals—and was made to pay more than $1 million in Mia’s legal fees....
5. In his 33-page decision, Judge Wilk found that Mr. Allen’s behavior toward Dylan was “grossly inappropriate and that measures must be taken to protect her.”....
6. Dylan’s claim of abuse was consistent with the testimony of three adults who were present that day....
7. The Yale-New Haven Hospital Child Sex Abuse Clinic’s finding that Dylan had not been sexually molested, cited repeatedly by Allen’s attorneys, was not accepted as reliable by Judge Wilk, or by the Connecticut state prosecutor who originally commissioned them....
8. Allen changed his story about the attic where the abuse allegedly took place. First, Allen told investigators he had never been in the attic where the alleged abuse took place....
9. The state attorney, Maco, said publicly he did have probable cause to press charges against Allen but declined, due to the fragility of the “child victim.”....
10. I am not a longtime friend of Mia Farrow’s, and I did not make any deal with her....
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/02/woody-allen-sex-abuse-10-facts
Woody Allen’s 1992 custody suit against Mia Farrow
http://www.vanityfair.com/dam/2014/02/woody-allen-1992-custody-suit.pdf
- 10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody Allen Sexual-Abuse Allegation
- Woody Allen’s 1992 custody suit against Mia Farrow
Dylan Farrow Responds to Woody Allen: 'Distortions and Outright Lies' 2/7/2014 by THR Staff
The director's adopted daughter denies Allen's suggestion that Mia Farrow coached her to say he sexually assaulted her.
Dylan Farrow has responded to an op-ed Woody Allen published in The New York Times Friday.
In the response, provided to The Hollywood Reporter, Farrow denounced Allen's op-ed -- in which he suggested Farrow's mother, Mia Farrow, had coached her to accuse Allen of sexually assaulting her as a child.
"I have never wavered in describing what he did to me. I will carry the memories of surviving these experiences for the rest of my life," Dylan said.
She went on to challenge other points in Allen's op-ed, calling it 'the latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies he has leveled at me for the past 20 years."....
Read Dylan's full response below.
Once again, Woody Allen is attacking me and my family in an effort to discredit and silence me -- but nothing he says or writes can change the truth. For 20 years, I have never wavered in describing what he did to me. I will carry the memories of surviving these experiences for the rest of my life....
His op-ed is the latest rehash of the same legalese, distortions, and outright lies he has leveled at me for the past 20 years. He insists my mother brought criminal charges -- in fact, it was a pediatrician who reported the incident to the police based on my firsthand account. He suggests that no one complained of his misconduct prior to his assault on me -- court documents show that he was in treatment for what his own therapist described as “inappropriate” behavior with me from as early as 1991. He offers a carefully worded claim that he passed a lie detector test -- in fact, he refused to take the test administered by the state police (he hired someone to administer his own test, which authorities refused to accept as evidence). These and other misrepresentations have been rebutted in more detail by independent, highly respected journalists....
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/dylan-farrow-responds-woody-allen-678552
10 Undeniable Facts About the Woody Allen Sexual-Abuse Allegation By Maureen Orth February 7 2014
This week, a number of commentators have published articles containing incorrect and irresponsible claims regarding the allegation of Woody Allen’s having sexually abused his adopted daughter, Dylan Farrow. As the author of two lengthy, heavily researched and thoroughly fact-checked articles that deal with that allegation—the first published in 1992, when Dylan was seven, and the second last fall, when she was 28—I feel obliged to set the record straight.
1. Mia never went to the police about the allegation of sexual abuse. Her lawyer told her on August 5, 1992, to take the seven-year-old Dylan to a pediatrician, who was bound by law to report Dylan’s story of sexual violation to law enforcement and did so on August 6.
2. Allen had been in therapy for alleged inappropriate behavior toward Dylan with a child psychologist before the abuse allegation was presented to the authorities or made public....
3. Allen refused to take a polygraph administered by the Connecticut state police. Instead, he took one from someone hired by his legal team. The Connecticut state police refused to accept the test as evidence....
4. Allen subsequently lost four exhaustive court battles—a lawsuit, a disciplinary charge against the prosecutor, and two appeals—and was made to pay more than $1 million in Mia’s legal fees....
5. In his 33-page decision, Judge Wilk found that Mr. Allen’s behavior toward Dylan was “grossly inappropriate and that measures must be taken to protect her.”....
6. Dylan’s claim of abuse was consistent with the testimony of three adults who were present that day....
7. The Yale-New Haven Hospital Child Sex Abuse Clinic’s finding that Dylan had not been sexually molested, cited repeatedly by Allen’s attorneys, was not accepted as reliable by Judge Wilk, or by the Connecticut state prosecutor who originally commissioned them....
8. Allen changed his story about the attic where the abuse allegedly took place. First, Allen told investigators he had never been in the attic where the alleged abuse took place....
9. The state attorney, Maco, said publicly he did have probable cause to press charges against Allen but declined, due to the fragility of the “child victim.”....
10. I am not a longtime friend of Mia Farrow’s, and I did not make any deal with her....
http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2014/02/woody-allen-sex-abuse-10-facts
Woody Allen’s 1992 custody suit against Mia Farrow
http://www.vanityfair.com/dam/2014/02/woody-allen-1992-custody-suit.pdf
Monday, February 3, 2014
Woody Allen's lawyer blames 'vengeful lover' for child molestation controversy, USF researchers unearthed 55 bodies from Dozier, more than state claimed, Pope covered crimes?
Woody Allen's lawyer blames 'vengeful lover' for child molestation controversy
By Alan Duke, CNN Mon February 3, 2014
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Renewed accusations that Woody Allen molested an adopted daughter two decades ago were "engineered by a vengeful lover," the filmmaker's lawyer told CNN on Monday.
The allegations were "fully vetted and rejected by independent authorities," Allen attorney Elkan Abramowitz said in a written statement.
The controversy dates back to 1992 after the revelation that Allen, then 56, was having an affair with Soon-Yi Previn, Mia Farrow's 19-year-old adopted daughter with composer Andre Previn. Allen and Previn married five years later.
Allen's legal and public relations teams scrambled to respond to an open letter written by Dylan Farrow and published by The New York Times on Saturday recounting her allegation that Allen sexually assaulted her when she was a child.
"What's your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house," Farrow wrote. "He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother's electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me."....
Acting Justice Elliott Wilk of New York's State Supreme Court "said it was unlikely that Mr. Allen could be prosecuted for sexual abuse based on the evidence," the newspaper reported. "But while a team of experts concluded that Dylan was not abused, the judge said he found the evidence inconclusive."
A former prosecutor who decided against pressing charges in the case declined to comment on the details in Dylan Farrow's letter Sunday.
"As a prosecutor I really can't comment on the substance of the statement of this now young woman. As a father of a child not too much older than this young woman, I can only say I hope she finds some peace and solace in the way she's expressing herself," former Connecticut State's Attorney Frank Maco said. "I hope she had access to my written statement of decision. My statement is as valid today as it was 20 years ago."
In 1993, Maco -- who's since retired -- told reporters he believed there was probable cause to arrest Allen. But he said he decided not to press charges, with Mia Farrow's support, "rather than exposing the child to possible harm."....
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/03/showbiz/woody-allen-dylan-farrow-letter/
USF researchers unearthed 55 bodies from Dozier, more than state claimed Ben Montgomery, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
TAMPA
....Researchers from the University of South Florida are trying to help. They announced Tuesday they have exhumed the remains of 55 boys who died at the notorious state-run reform school in the Panhandle town of Marianna.
That's 24 more than the 31 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found during a cursory investigation in 2009 on orders from then-Gov. Charlie Crist. The FDLE relied on incomplete school records and did not use ground-penetrating radar to map the cemetery.
The number even exceeds USF's earlier estimate of roughly 50, which was based on ground-penetrating radar....
The state closed the facility in June 2011 after a century-long cycle of scandal and short-lived reform. The school, 60 miles west of Tallahassee, was founded in 1900 and was once the largest of its kind in the nation. It has been known as the Florida Industrial School for Boys, the Florida School for Boys and the Dozier School for Boys. Over the years, kids were locked in irons, beaten with a leather strap in a building called the White House, locked in isolation for as long as three weeks and hog-tied.
In October 2008, five former wards went public with stories of extreme physical and sexual abuse at the hands of guards. They were featured in a Tampa Bay Times series called For Their Own Good. More than 500 men have come forward with similar stories of being abused by staff at the school, according to a lawyer with Masterson & Hoag, the St. Petersburg firm representing the men....
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/usf-researchers-unearthed-55-bodies-from-dozier-more-than-state-claimed/2163015
Pope Bergoglio child trafficked; Pope Benedict, Queen Elizabeth covered crimes?
February 3, 2014 Judy Byington Saratoga Springs Child Abuse Examiner
Today Catholic Pope Francis Bergoglio faced charges of trafficking children from Catholic orphanages to kidnapping networks during Argentine's 1970s Junta Dirty War. Parents of the children disappeared at the hands of the Junta military. http://youtu.be/vNTTx7gZHS4
http://www.examiner.com/article/pope-bergoglio-child-trafficked-pope-benedict-queen-elizabeth-covered-crimes
By Alan Duke, CNN Mon February 3, 2014
Los Angeles (CNN) -- Renewed accusations that Woody Allen molested an adopted daughter two decades ago were "engineered by a vengeful lover," the filmmaker's lawyer told CNN on Monday.
The allegations were "fully vetted and rejected by independent authorities," Allen attorney Elkan Abramowitz said in a written statement.
The controversy dates back to 1992 after the revelation that Allen, then 56, was having an affair with Soon-Yi Previn, Mia Farrow's 19-year-old adopted daughter with composer Andre Previn. Allen and Previn married five years later.
Allen's legal and public relations teams scrambled to respond to an open letter written by Dylan Farrow and published by The New York Times on Saturday recounting her allegation that Allen sexually assaulted her when she was a child.
"What's your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house," Farrow wrote. "He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother's electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me."....
Acting Justice Elliott Wilk of New York's State Supreme Court "said it was unlikely that Mr. Allen could be prosecuted for sexual abuse based on the evidence," the newspaper reported. "But while a team of experts concluded that Dylan was not abused, the judge said he found the evidence inconclusive."
A former prosecutor who decided against pressing charges in the case declined to comment on the details in Dylan Farrow's letter Sunday.
"As a prosecutor I really can't comment on the substance of the statement of this now young woman. As a father of a child not too much older than this young woman, I can only say I hope she finds some peace and solace in the way she's expressing herself," former Connecticut State's Attorney Frank Maco said. "I hope she had access to my written statement of decision. My statement is as valid today as it was 20 years ago."
In 1993, Maco -- who's since retired -- told reporters he believed there was probable cause to arrest Allen. But he said he decided not to press charges, with Mia Farrow's support, "rather than exposing the child to possible harm."....
http://www.cnn.com/2014/02/03/showbiz/woody-allen-dylan-farrow-letter/
USF researchers unearthed 55 bodies from Dozier, more than state claimed Ben Montgomery, Times Staff Writer
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
TAMPA
....Researchers from the University of South Florida are trying to help. They announced Tuesday they have exhumed the remains of 55 boys who died at the notorious state-run reform school in the Panhandle town of Marianna.
That's 24 more than the 31 the Florida Department of Law Enforcement found during a cursory investigation in 2009 on orders from then-Gov. Charlie Crist. The FDLE relied on incomplete school records and did not use ground-penetrating radar to map the cemetery.
The number even exceeds USF's earlier estimate of roughly 50, which was based on ground-penetrating radar....
The state closed the facility in June 2011 after a century-long cycle of scandal and short-lived reform. The school, 60 miles west of Tallahassee, was founded in 1900 and was once the largest of its kind in the nation. It has been known as the Florida Industrial School for Boys, the Florida School for Boys and the Dozier School for Boys. Over the years, kids were locked in irons, beaten with a leather strap in a building called the White House, locked in isolation for as long as three weeks and hog-tied.
In October 2008, five former wards went public with stories of extreme physical and sexual abuse at the hands of guards. They were featured in a Tampa Bay Times series called For Their Own Good. More than 500 men have come forward with similar stories of being abused by staff at the school, according to a lawyer with Masterson & Hoag, the St. Petersburg firm representing the men....
http://www.tampabay.com/news/politics/stateroundup/usf-researchers-unearthed-55-bodies-from-dozier-more-than-state-claimed/2163015
Pope Bergoglio child trafficked; Pope Benedict, Queen Elizabeth covered crimes?
February 3, 2014 Judy Byington Saratoga Springs Child Abuse Examiner
Today Catholic Pope Francis Bergoglio faced charges of trafficking children from Catholic orphanages to kidnapping networks during Argentine's 1970s Junta Dirty War. Parents of the children disappeared at the hands of the Junta military. http://youtu.be/vNTTx7gZHS4
http://www.examiner.com/article/pope-bergoglio-child-trafficked-pope-benedict-queen-elizabeth-covered-crimes
Sunday, February 2, 2014
An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow
An Open Letter From Dylan Farrow
By DYLAN FARROW February 1, 2014
(A note from Nicholas Kristof: In 1993, accusations that Woody Allen had abused his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, filled the headlines, part of a sensational story about the celebrity split between Allen and his girlfriend, Mia Farrow. This is a case that has been written about endlessly, but this is the first time that Dylan Farrow herself has written about it in public. It’s important to note that Woody Allen was never prosecuted in this case and has consistently denied wrongdoing; he deserves the presumption of innocence....)
What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.
For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.
When I asked my mother if her dad did to her what Woody Allen did to me, I honestly did not know the answer. I also didn’t know the firestorm it would trigger. I didn’t know that my father would use his sexual relationship with my sister to cover up the abuse he inflicted on me. I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand. At one point, my mother sat me down and told me that I wouldn’t be in trouble if I was lying – that I could take it all back. I couldn’t. It was all true. But sexual abuse claims against the powerful stall more easily. There were experts willing to attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child....
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/
By DYLAN FARROW February 1, 2014
(A note from Nicholas Kristof: In 1993, accusations that Woody Allen had abused his adoptive daughter, Dylan Farrow, filled the headlines, part of a sensational story about the celebrity split between Allen and his girlfriend, Mia Farrow. This is a case that has been written about endlessly, but this is the first time that Dylan Farrow herself has written about it in public. It’s important to note that Woody Allen was never prosecuted in this case and has consistently denied wrongdoing; he deserves the presumption of innocence....)
What’s your favorite Woody Allen movie? Before you answer, you should know: when I was seven years old, Woody Allen took me by the hand and led me into a dim, closet-like attic on the second floor of our house. He told me to lay on my stomach and play with my brother’s electric train set. Then he sexually assaulted me. He talked to me while he did it, whispering that I was a good girl, that this was our secret, promising that we’d go to Paris and I’d be a star in his movies. I remember staring at that toy train, focusing on it as it traveled in its circle around the attic. To this day, I find it difficult to look at toy trains.
For as long as I could remember, my father had been doing things to me that I didn’t like. I didn’t like how often he would take me away from my mom, siblings and friends to be alone with him. I didn’t like it when he would stick his thumb in my mouth. I didn’t like it when I had to get in bed with him under the sheets when he was in his underwear. I didn’t like it when he would place his head in my naked lap and breathe in and breathe out. I would hide under beds or lock myself in the bathroom to avoid these encounters, but he always found me. These things happened so often, so routinely, so skillfully hidden from a mother that would have protected me had she known, that I thought it was normal. I thought this was how fathers doted on their daughters. But what he did to me in the attic felt different. I couldn’t keep the secret anymore.
When I asked my mother if her dad did to her what Woody Allen did to me, I honestly did not know the answer. I also didn’t know the firestorm it would trigger. I didn’t know that my father would use his sexual relationship with my sister to cover up the abuse he inflicted on me. I didn’t know that he would accuse my mother of planting the abuse in my head and call her a liar for defending me. I didn’t know that I would be made to recount my story over and over again, to doctor after doctor, pushed to see if I’d admit I was lying as part of a legal battle I couldn’t possibly understand. At one point, my mother sat me down and told me that I wouldn’t be in trouble if I was lying – that I could take it all back. I couldn’t. It was all true. But sexual abuse claims against the powerful stall more easily. There were experts willing to attack my credibility. There were doctors willing to gaslight an abused child....
http://kristof.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/02/01/an-open-letter-from-dylan-farrow/
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