"Best to take individual cases on their merits, I think."
Me too - without maximum sentencing wwe would have more jails than houses

In my couple-of-years I befriended a music teacher with whom I became very friendly
He once told me that he was becoming extremely worried about his feelings towards some of his young girl pupils
He told me one drunken night that he intended to commit suicide if he ever found he couldn't control those feelings
Because I have always been an admirer of women doesn't mean I am a potential rapist
I've always believed that abuses such as these are mainly a mixture of weakness and abuse of power - as opposite as they may seem.
Clerical did what they did because their position allowed them to; as with the physical abuse mane of those in their care experienced, it was a manifestation of extreme power
Even homosexuality didn't feature in the equation - like same sex in prisons, they availed themselves of what was available to them

I think "evil" is a far too important and useful a word to be overused - Brendan Smythe and his ilk displayed traits of evil, most of the rest were somewhat pathetically weak, and in some ways, victims of their own weaknesses
The real criminals were those who covered the crimes up and allowed them to continue   
One of the few 'good' (reservedly) things to have come out of the whole mess is that the church will vener again be in a position to behave as they did; (hopefully) those days are gone forever
Jim