First off, I hope I will be forgiven on this occasion for posting anonymously.

My experience:  I suffered sexual abuse between the ages of 3 and 13 at the hands of a cousin who was five years older than me – a child himself when it began.  I do not intend to go into the details here – it would take pages and pages for me to relive all that I went through.  I spent much of my time between the ages of 11 and 13 absolutely terrified that I might be pregnant.  It ended when it did because I finally had the courage to tell him to stop.  I told no one.  When I was 17 a situation developed where, in the heat of a moment, my cousin became concerned that I was going to tell other people what had gone on, and he tried to kill (strangle) me.  Thankfully other people were present and pulled him off, but I will never forget the feeling of passing out thinking I would never come round.  I had bruises on my neck for weeks.

I am now a mother myself.

The point of this post is twofold.  A couple of people have gone against the grain in this thread saying that they support the idea of rehabilitation for sex offenders.  They have been branded ‘do-gooders’ or, rather patronisingly IMHO, been told that they would feel differently if they had children.

My personal view is that I am totally opposed to capital punishment, lynch mobs and the like.  I fully support rehabilitation, and see no reason why someone who has served a sentence, shows true remorse,  and is deemed highly unlikely to reoffend should not be given a new identity and reintegrated into society (subject to being placed on the appropriate registers).

At the time the Megan’s law petitions were going around I happened to be passing through a small village, and was asked in a local convenience shop to sign.  I said I would not as I did not agree with it, and it was almost as if everyone in that shop at the time audibly gasped and glared at me accordingly.  I was pregnant at the time and told I would feel different once my baby was born.  I don’t.

My second point is that there is evidence to suggest that the majority of sexual abuse on young children is actually carried out not by adults but, as in my case, by older children.  Perhaps this is something the parents on here calling for castration, hanging and shooting may wish to think about.  Would you still consider those apt punishments if it was discovered, god forbid, that your 10 year old son was abusing your 5 year old daughter?

There’s no black and white here, but please let’s respect everyone’s viewpoint.