WAYS OF DEALING WITH PAEDOPHILES
"We have a duty to protect our children and we are currently failing them badly!"
Society Not Doing Enough: It is a sad fact that there are still too many problems in our society caused by our failure to address certain issues as radically and effectively as we should. Paedophiles are a typical example of this and our failure to address this particular issue has resulted in the sacrifice of many innocent children as well as the sacrifice of many of our children's innocence.
Snake In The Grass: On average, eight children a year die as a result of sexual predators and that is society's responsibility. We have a duty to protect our children from danger and in this area we are currently failing them badly. If there is a snake in the grass, you keep your child away from it, or you remove the snake. The current policy of the authorities is to put the snake in the grass but not tell anyone where it is. It is no surprise then that people get bitten.
Track Record: When you hear about cases where potential suspects and offenders have a track record of offending and then go on to do it again because they have been released unchecked, it is a particularly sore point. In some instances, a child has been abducted and murdered and the offender has been released after fifteen years, only to go and do it again and destroy more lives. If and child-murderers and paedophiles are released and children suffer or die as a result, it is society that is to blame.
Tagged: A paedophile may not be able to account for his actions, but we can. If there is even the slightest possible likelihood of a paedophile reoffending perhaps they should also be electronically tagged and have their movements carefully monitored at all times. Where the safety of our children is concerned nothing should be left to chance. If a child goes missing in such circumstances, such a system would certainly help identify who was responsible and perhaps aid in the child's recovery, before it is too late.
Those Were The Days: It would be nice to think that one day we could return to a time where children could go out and play and make their own way to and from school without being vulnerable or at risk. It would also be nice for parents not to have to have cause for concern, wondering what sort of person is out there waiting and ready to strike. So many parents are too frightened to let their children out to play nowadays, and if they do go out to play, you can't help but worry if they're late back or they become incommunicado for any reason.
Reoffending Inevitable: There are so many examples of paedophiles reoffending and being given the opportunity to reoffend and one could fill many pages with such tragic stories. In recent times we have all been made more aware of just how rife child sex-abuse is and has been. Children look to us for protection and it is our duty to provide that. We can't keep children wrapped up in cotton wool, but we can ensure that we do not subject them to unnecessary danger by allowing paedophiles to act unimpeded.
The Girls Who Were Found Alive - CH4 Dispatches
Near Death Experience: In January 1999, two 10-year-old girls, Charlene Lunnon and Lisa Hoodless, went missing in St Leonards, Sussex. They were snatched by 46-year-old Alan Hopkinson, a predatory paedophile who had previously served time for abducting an 11-year-old girl. He intercepted the girls in a quiet road when they were on their way to school and bundled them into the boot of his car. He then drove them ten miles along the coast road to his flat, in Eastbourne, where he kept them for four days, before they were discovered, completely by chance. During the period Alan Hopkinson had the girls, he considered killing them to cover his tracks, but didn't actually carry it out. On that day, he told the girls he was actually taking them home, but in fact drove them to Beachy Head, the notorious suicide spot, where he contemplated pushing them over the edge, before then changing his mind.
Hopes Beginning To Fade: Having second thoughts, and thinking that perhaps he might like to keep them for longer and subject them to further sexual abuse, he drove them back to his flat. During the period the girls were missing a massive police hunt, also involving the army, had failed to turn up any hint of where they might be, and hopes were beginning to fade that they would ever be seen alive again. However, at the same time, and completely by chance, another investigation by Sussex Police, unconnected with the disappearance of two girls, was about to lead to their inadvertent discovery and salvation. Not far from where Alan Hopkinson lived in Eastbourne, another young schoolgirl had complained that she had been sexually assaulted by him over a period of several months and the police were preparing to pay him a visit.
Very Lucky Escape: That morning, as the girls sat in Hopkinson's flat, there was a loud knock at the door and an announcement that it was the police. Pacing up and down and swearing to himself, Hopkinson eventually decided he'd better answer the door where he was confronted by several officers from the Sussex Police. They had absolutely no idea they were about to find the two missing schoolgirls in his flat. As the police began to converse with him, he confessed to them that he had the two girls they were looking for were there with him in his flat. Consequently, and luckily, Lisa and Charlene were reunited with their families. Children in this type of instance don't usually come home, they are usually found dead, and this may well have been the case for Lisa and Charlene were it not for the chance circumstances surrounding the abduction.
Shouldn't Be Allowed! On 28 May 1999, Hopkinson was given nine life sentences, and as a direct result of Lisa and Charlene's abduction, and new guidelines were introduced to ensure parents and schools communicated when children failed to turn up for registration. However, why was a known offender, who had a history of offending, and who was very probably likely to offend again, 'allowed' the freedom to be able to consider and carry out such an attack in the first place? If those children had been killed it would have been society's fault, just like all the other times innocent children have been abducted, interfered with and murdered by paedophiles who have been allowed to fall below the police radar and disappear covertly. Melting ambiguously back into society whilst waiting and watching for an opportunity to strike again. Society is not doing enough to protect its children and is giving far too much consideration to perverted offenders who simply should be removed from the equation, one way or the other - permanently!