Hi Eliza, I hope you don't think I was criticising you in any way. Not at all, I just wanted to highlight the need - in all discussions of this kind - to distinguish between child-abusers (a repulsive crime that does huge harm, often to multiple others) and paedophilia (a condition that harms no-one but the sufferer.)

A lot of people (indeed, I think most people) conflate them entirely, which is why on the one hand we often find people either coming down on one side or another of two polar ideas; the first one (I'll call it 'hard-line') castigating all paedophiles as monsters, and on the other (I'll call it 'liberal') as sick individuals in need of treatment.

Neither are true. Offenders rarely benefit from treatment, they are simply too morally corrupt and too far gone down their chosen road. As you say lots of other people, including single men for example, manage to continue their lives without resorting to rape or assault. Non-offenders however - so far as I understand - can gain some benefit from treatment.

I've said it elsewhere here, but I was myself abused as a child, it was very nasty stuff too. The psychological effects on me have hindered my life considerably. Though I am fortunate to have landed myself a wonderful bloke who's loved and supported me for twenty years now. I do understand why you find it all so disturbing.

There are huge issues in our society about organised corrupt groups (I've heard Masons mentioned and I don't think it's unrealistic to suppose that these secret groups shield their own) protecting one another. Each time I hear of a new revelation, a fresh stone overturned and the fetid little grubs wriggling in the light of day, I'm heartened rather than dismayed - in point of fact I rather like knowing that these sinister shitbags are probably shaking in their boots waiting for their turn to be exposed. Bring it on I say.