"would that money not be betterspent on better training,and more well trained social workers to prevent other cases happening."

Captain Birdseye, I agree with some of what you say.

Prison sentences whatever their supposed purpose, seem to neither discourage abuse in the first place, nor prevent offenders reoffending.

RBridges 'purpose of prison' may indeed be the official rational or spin, but it's one which has been intellectually (not by him personally, I think he's just offering a professional take on the matter) reasoned out in this way *retrospectively*.

I don't know anything about the history of crime and punishment in this country, but I'm pretty sure that most social punishment (even as it currently stands) has evolved out of a pretty basic instinct in human beings for a desire for vengeance.

Now vengeance is a whole other delicate matter, an interesting one that aught not to simply be swept away in our 'enlightened' times. And I believe there may be a (yes, we are strange psychological animals) case for the psychological healing of survivors (or indeed a traumatised society) requiring a form of retributive atonement, which is cathartic (the Greeks seemed to understand a lot of this stuff a bit better than us lot) and potentially re-empowering and restabalising.

I cannot *make the case* for that myself (though it has been demonstrated to me via the experiences of others) but I believe it is nevertheless a factor which aught not to be dismissed out of hand as too 'uncilvilised' or 'ugly' to warrant honest, non-squeamish and pragmatic meditation upon. (I imagine this suggestion will alienate me substantially from fellow socialist and liberal leaning thinkers on this forum. But... Fortunately I don't give a fuck.)

But THE most important thing, is indeed, the prevention of re-offence, and the protection of vulnerable children. And of course, the big question is, as indeed you say, how to achieve this?

Well, in in the instance posted above, clearly there are cultural and institutional issues which contribute vastly to this particular case. Which will no doubt become a significant and even potentially seminal one in terms of bringing about required change - or so one may hope.

But so long as there are powerful and profoundly influential institutions and organisations (be they religious or secular - though I suspect almost exclusively religious in cases such as these) which promote their own peculiar, rigid and dogmatic agenda at the expense of the utterly innocent and vulnerable, there must be major upheavals on multiple levels (culturally, socially and educationally) involved.

I hoped to organise my thoughts much, much better here, but I'm already too saturated in Chardonnay for useful thought frankly!