

Child sex abuse gangs, Advice overwhelm, Football feminist Karen Dobres
The BBC has found that five women who were exploited by so-called grooming gangs in Rotherham as children say they were also abused by police officers in the town at the time. One woman says she was raped repeatedly in a marked police car, and threatened with being handed back to the gang if she didn't comply. The BBC's Ed Thomas brings us the story and Clare McDonnell hears from Professor Alexis Jay who is the author of the Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse and Zoë Billingham, former His Majesty's Inspector of Constabulary. New mums are often inundated with advice, whether that's from their own mums or well meaning women in their lives. Increasingly though, given the sheer amount of our lives that takes place on social media the advice can come straight through our phones. It's led to what the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP) is calling 'advice overwhelm'. They say two thirds of new mums surveyed felt being inundated with advice added to the pressures of motherhood. It also found a third of new parents feel it's 'self-indulgent' to seek therapy and support. Clare is joined by Georgina Sturmer from BACP and Emma Gould, a mum of three who has experience of this. Julie is a new play about Julie Livingstone, a 14-year-old girl who died after being struck by a plastic bullet fired from an Army Saracen in May 1981 in Belfast, at the height of the hunger strike crisis. It is written and performed by her niece, award-winning actress Charlotte McCurry, who wasn't born when the tragedy happened but has grown up with Julie's legacy. Charlotte joins Clare. With the women's Euro's over, talk has turned to what next for the women's game in this country. One club which often gets mentioned when looking at alternative ways of running a football club is Lewes FC in East Sussex. It gained national attention back in 2017 when it became the first club in the world to pay its men and women equally. It hasn't been smooth sailing and there are questions even now about its financial viability, but one of those who championed its move to gender equality is Karen Dobres. She's even written a book about it – Pitch Invasion, my story as a feminist on a Football Club Board. Karen joins Clare in the studio. Presenter: Clare McDonnell Producer: Emma Pearce