Channel 4 under fire for child abuser film

A charity for child abuse victims has raised concerns about a new Channel 4 drama about a sex offender.

Secret Life stars Pride and Prejudice actor Matthew Macfadyen, 32, as Charlie, an offender battling to change his behaviour.

The controversial feature-length drama focuses on the struggle he faces to stop abusing after the rehabilitation centre he stays in is shut down.

Writer and director Rowan Joffe wrote Secret Life after watching a news bulletin about the closure of the UK’s last centre for sex offenders.

But Napac (the National Association for People Abused in Childhood) said it had issues about Secret Life, which focuses on the struggle of the paedophile rather than the victim.

Chief executive Peter Saunders said: “All too often it is the perpetrators of crime who get the attention and the resources, but adult survivors of child abuse tend to be left high and dry and left to deal with the lifelong consequences of abuse in isolation.”

He said of the film: “There is little or no reference to the immense harm inflicted by this crime on the victim.

“Charlie appears to make the excuse at the beginning of the film that he is an abuser because it happened to him.

“But the vast majority of people who are abused would never choose to inflict on others what was done to them.

“Charlie is not the typical child abuser. Children are in far greater danger of being attacked by someone they know, often within the family, than by a stranger.

“The majority of offenders are living with their wife, probably abusing their children,” he added.

“Few of them ever get caught. That’s what society doesn’t like to address. It’s easier to talk about a person in a dirty raincoat.”

Channel 4’s commissioning editor for drama Liza Marshall defended Secret Life at today’s screening, saying it was part of the broadcaster’s brief to “tackle difficult and challenging subjects”.

She said: “We hope that people will watch the film before making their judgments.

“It’s an incredibly balanced film that puts across all the points in a balanced way. I hope we don’t get a knee-jerk response.”

Macfadyen, best known as Mr Darcy in Pride and Prejudice, said the role was “daunting”.

He added: “If the film is sympathetic, it’s sympathetic in his struggle and perseverance not to reoffend. I didn’t feel it was trying to make it palatable.”

He added: “It’s a difficult subject. Wouldn’t it be great if you could identify the man in the grubby overcoat? Unfortunately you can’t. It’s not that black and white.”

Secret Life’s writer Joffe said: “Often depictions in dramas are very stereotypical.

“It was important for us to break the mould, to give as accurate a picture as we could.”

He added: “A lot of sex offenders have been abused in some way or another. That’s not about inciting sympathy. It’s just a very important clue to the psychology of the men. It’s something we need to understand if we are to manage them more effectively.

“We’ve tried as hard as we could not to whitewash or sentimentalise. I hope we certainly made it clear that the man posed a threat to children in the past and would do again.”

:: Secret Life is broadcast on April 19 at 9pm on Channel 4.