No. 2462252
When I lived in Devon, which is a few years ago now, I worked with a very nice woman who was a part-time magistrate. (For friends outside the UK, magistrates are all part-time volunteers - carefully selected and trained - who judge all cases initially, with the more serious cases being sent on to the Crown Court by the magistrate.) Because of the way the magistrates' court operates, she sat in various courtrooms across Devon and Cornwall.
During one of our conversations about this fascinating role, she told me that the magistrates’ courts this part of England see disproportionately large numbers of cases involving paedophilia. It was something that magistrates in Devon and Cornwall had to get used to and learn to deal with. I asked her why she thought this was the case. Why would this beautiful area of the country, popular with holidaymakers and tourists and retired people, be a magnet for paedophilic men?
The answer? According to my friend, and the collective wisdom of the magistrates and the police, developed over many decades, it’s because Devon and Cornwall have some of the best beaches in the UK. All summer, there are thousands of children in swimsuits (or just a nappy, or naked) at beaches all round the coast.
Very soon after she told me, I took my son (then nine years old) and a group of four of his friends of the same age to the beach. As the five of them jumped in and out of the waves in their shortie wetsuits, I noticed a man on his own looking at them, and I noticed the way the wet neoprene emphasised their slender bodies and cute little bums.
Of course, now I know this, every time I go to the beach, I notice the men on their own. I’d never noticed them before, because they make every effort not to be noticeable. Sitting on benches, sitting on the sand, at a distance from other people. Fully dressed, no bag of beach paraphernalia, not looking around to see where the rest of their family has got to.
Next time you go to the beach, you will see them too.