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Dear Editor, Karen McVeigh and Jim Fairlie are correct in drawing attention to the misleading advice issued by the Scottish Executive regarding child sexual abuse. (Experts call for child sexual abuse booklet to be withdrawn – 6 March 2006). It is important firstly to gain some insight into the size of the problem. Firstly in England, North America, and Australia over 85 per cent of reports of child abuse are found to be unsubstantiated and there is therefore gross over-reporting of child abuse and a great many false accusations of child abuse in those countries. Official statistics for Scotland indicate a very similar situation. Research has shown that children who are subjected to investigations following false accusations of child abuse suffer severe and long-lasting harm as a consequence and their families are devastated. There are approximately 8,000 reports of child abuse in Scotland every year of which only approximately 2,500 children’s names are registered on the Children At Risk Register following Child Protection Case Conferences – approximately 0.24 per cent of the child population of Scotland. It must be emphasised that these names are placed on the Registers based on a very low level of evidentiary proof and are not legally proven, only a supposition that abuse may have occurred or a conjecture that it may be likely to occur. Only a very small number progress to the Courts for a legal decision. Of the 2,500 children whose names are placed on the Register annually only approximately 300 cases are allegations of sexual abuse. Interestingly there are 3,000 staff employed across Scotland to provide child protection services. In England the numbers of reports of child abuse and the numbers of children placed on At Risk Registers has been declining rapidly over the last ten years, yet Scotland has seen a rise in such cases over recent years. Such increases are not usually due to actual increases in numbers of children abused or alleged to have been abused or likely to be abused, but are due to changes in the definitions and interpretations of child abuse by the child protection industry - obviously one of the primary objectives of the `Can of Worms' booklet. I am quite sure that following the publication of the booklet `Can of Worms – Yes you can!’ there will be a rapid increase in the numbers of children added to the At Risk registers for the next few years and many more innocent children and their families in Scotland will be unnecessarily drawn into the horrors of child protection procedures and will consequently have their lives devastated. Yours sincerely Charles Pragnell Expert Defence Witness - Child Protection and Child/Family Advocate
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