Why did Roy Greenslade demonise me when I accused an IRA member of rape?

Does it really matter if someone who was a newspaper editor, columnist and journalism professor has now admitted to being an unapologetic supporter for the ‘physical force’ carried out by the IRA? In short, yes it does, very much.

You might not have heard of Roy Greenslade until the story this weekend that the former Daily Mirror editor, and Sun executive outed himself as an ardent IRA supporter. But we now know that, while Greenslade had platformed himself in some very powerful publications as commentator and champion of media ethics, he was, arguably, a master of cognitive dissonance when it came to his own profession. As one of the targets of his pen, let me tell you about the grief he caused me.

Aged 16, I was repeatedly raped and sexually abused by an IRA man who lived with my father’s sister. Although IRA members were not unusual to see in west Belfast (my great uncle Joe had been its former chief of staff), this man was particularly depraved: he had been a member of a ‘civil administration unit’ in Ballymurphy, which was a grand title for carrying out so-called punishment attacks on young men involved in petty crime.