You Want it Darker

 mr bungalow bill said: "Gosh, Mrs I, if we were ever minded to co-opt religious notions on here then we might call it (the whole shit show) Original Sin. Perhaps better, though, just to acknowledge that we're no good."

I don't know if Ishmaelites picked up on my reference to the "knit your own sex offender kit." Why would you? mr ishmael used to be deeply disturbed by the sight of older Orcadian men, in blue boiler suits, talking to each other on the street, out of the corner of their mouths. He imagined them all as beasts. He had an instinct, his hackles rising. He had worked with enough sex offenders to recognise the secrecy, the surreptitious mutual recognition, keeping secrets even from themselves, but sharing them with those of a like mind. As, so often it happened, he was right. The incidence of sex offending is surprisingly high in these islands, so frequently portrayed as a safe place. That the dark streak is persistently denied goes to the wish that these things simply don't happen. One of my colleagues once described Orkney to me as a liminal place - and so it seems on a misty night, or when a moon shadow chases you across the Harray plain in cold, clear December, imagination filled with the thoughts of the murdered Harray babies, their soft bones intermingled beneath the flagstones of an isolated cottage.

Maybe it is a thin place, where dark extrusions from somewhere else influence the suggestible and lonely. Maybe it is just a shit show. 

Here's a story from the crime pages of the weekly newspaper, The Orcadian, Thursday, July 10th, 2025.

Man claims "desensitisation" to legal pornography led to images of child and dog abuse.   

Kirkwall Sheriff Court heard on Wednesday, July 2nd, that 55 year-old Gary James C.- was sexually attracted to children and had become "desensitised" to legal pornography. He appeared on indictment and admitted to taking or permitting to be taken indecent images of children in 2022. He also admitted possessing extreme pornography depicting explicit images of acts involving his dog. He further admitted threatening or abusive behaviour by permitting and encouraging his dog to act as it did and filming it.

Procurator Fiscal Sue Foard said police received intelligence that C.- was uploading child sex material. Shortly after, a search warrant was executed on the house where he lived with his partner and his dog, D.-

He told police "To save you a lot of time, it's me and my mobile phone. That is where you'll find the stuff."

He later admitted that he was sexually attracted to male and female children from a year old and upwards. He initially denied being involved in sexual activity with animals, but when presented with the material extracted from his phone, he admitted his interaction with his dog. He said it had occurred on several occasions.

Indecent images of child sex abuse  were recovered from his phone, together with a further 11 images and 3 video clips of him abusing his dog. Sentence has been deferred for a criminal justice social work report. His name has been placed on the Sex Offender Register.

You Want It Darker

Song by

Leonard Cohen

If you are the dealer, I'm out of the game
If you are the healer, it means I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory, then mine must be the shame
You want it darker
We kill the flame

Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the help that never came
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord

There's a lover in the story
But the story's still the same
There's a lullaby for suffering
And a paradox to blame
But it's written in the scriptures
And it's not some idol claim
You want it darker
We kill the flame

They're lining up the prisoners
And the guards are taking aim
I struggle with some demons
They were middle class and tame
I didn't know I had permission
To murder and to maim
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord

Magnified, sanctified
Be the holy name
Vilified, crucified
In the human frame
A million candles burning
For the love that never came
You want it darker
We kill the flame

If you are the dealer, let me out of the game
If you are the healer, I'm broken and lame
If thine is the glory, mine must be the shame
You want it darker

Hineni, hineni
Hineni, hineni
I'm ready, my Lord.