Creeps beneath the calm veneer

PREDATORY adults having sex with innocent children. That’s what we are talking about here. If that crime doesn’t disgust you, then you and I have a problem.

There are often grey areas involved in criminal acts but not when it comes to an adult abusing an innocent child for their own sexual gratification.

When I was working as a cop, I often encountered paedophiles and found them to be extremely manipulative, deliberately presenting themselves as decent people. This false persona creates situations where they have access to children, because people trust them.

Their powerful sexual urges were difficult to suppress. They were often preoccupied with finding their next victim. That’s what notorious paedophile Jeffrey Hillsley did when he befriended a man to get access to a 10-year-old girl.

It was quite chilling when I interviewed Hillsley, listening to him describe how he killed the friend in 2003 before raping his young stepdaughter. Thankfully, Hillsley is doing life in prison, but it reaffirmed to me just how dangerous predatory paedophiles are.

What also concerns me about children being sexually abused is the number of people who are aware of this occurring but choose to remain silent. Why does this happen? One would think any decent person would stand up and support a child who has been sexually abused, but from what I have seen that is not necessarily the case.

Quite often, these matters are swept under the carpet because it is too confronting, or there are concerns it could break up families if the abuse becomes public.

That’s simply not good enough. If you are aware of the sexual abuse of a child and choose not to come forward, you are complicit in the act – if not legally then certainly morally.