Child abductions

I am sure there have always been people who have harmed children but as you say goldengirl the media are more 'in your face' and will interview anyone who will give them a sensational or dramatic edge to an event even if they have no substantiated evidence to say what they say! It hypes everything up, often out of all proportion, causing unnecessary alarm. Also news is in your living room 24/7.

Even though it's rare it makes us curtail the freedom of our little ones which is so sad. Gone are the days when I used to go alone on the Downs with my book. There must have been incidents then but the media in those days wasn't as widespread as it is today. My parents used to warn me about talking to or taking things from strangers but the only time someone I didn't know offered me an apple I rushed home only to find it was a friend of my parents! He understood totally but must have felt like the Wicked Queen in Snow White!

But good to know police et al took all precautions and best of all no child has been harmed. There are always rumours at school gates at the best of times never mind when there is a real incident to manage!!

I hope it's a storm in a tea cup!! I expect the rumour mill started after the first attempt!!

Storm in teacup? Or no smoke without fire?

Just had email from an ex-colleague. One man, one woman made an attempt, and this is reason for schools on alert; they now know an allegation by a teenager about a gang was a hoax, and a third, unconnected incident seems to be about a youth on a bike watching or taking photos a few days ago.

Just looked up the latest reports on these incidents and the police have said they are not connected. There is no evidence of any criminal offences taking place. It seems that it may have all been a false alarm...but better that than a child lost.

It's reassuring to hear they have a description of these people. Someone will work out who they are and inform on them. Having worked alongside police in an office where a major incident like this is being detected, I was stunned at the amount of information beng phoned in, on top of the reports that go in to Crimestoppers. I'm sure they'll have suspects already as they've been able to take information out to schools etc.

Indeed we do, Annobel. On one occasion when I was out walking the new-born wee man in his pushcair, I noticed a gang of youths who appeared high on drugs gathered at the exit of the park, close to babe's home. Rather than risk walking past them, I turned back and took the long [3 mile detour] back to safety. It's what we do...

I saw that on the news and my stomach did a full turn.. one of the schools is in the road where my brother and his family live and my nephews used to attend the school..which is up the road from where I was HT so i know the schools area involved quite well.

All very worrying..although thankfully rare...when the threat is on your doorstep. Let's hope the perpetrators are tracked down quickly. Had not heard the E European link in the news or papers.

I'm with you there soop. Trouble is that we both live well away from our wee GC.

If anyone attempted to snatch our wee man, I would fight 'til the death to protect him. And I'm certain that I'm not the only one who would do likewise in similar circumstances...

whenim64 Thanks. That's very reassuring. I'm told that there are men and women in this particular group - possibly Eastern European. The children involved were able to run off screaming - luckily!!

annobel I would hope that the police have done this.

I hope adjacent counties are also on the alert. My GC are in Hampshire.

janthea this is an extremely rare occurence and when such situations arise, the police go full pelt at it and will not cease until they have some results. They'll have convened very high level 'gold' meetings, bringing in all the relevant agencies, and briefing people who manage workers who are out and about on the streets like postal workers, delivery companies, council and road workers, to try and pull information together. Every registered sex offender, and those who are known but not registered, will be brought in to be questioned about their whereabouts when these incidents have occured. Police leave gets cancelled and they'll be going flat out with the Chief Constable, MPs and Council Leaders leaning on them to report back information. Resources get redirected, so people reporting burglaries will be complaining no-one has been to see them! If it's a gang, someone will know something - gang could mean 2 or 3 people in this case - likely to be men, and they would need to be inobtrusive, so more than 2 or 3 would attract attention.

I once supervised a man on parole who has attempted this sort of thing, and was very worried when I heard of an incident, so phoned the police to name him - as soon as his car was described, the police did a trawl of every similar car and went out to account for every one. He travelled 25 miles to commit his offence, but they still found him - he went to prison again for 5 years.

I hope the children are ok after such a frightening experience. Their parents must think their worst nightmare has happened. Rest assured that the police won't rest until this is detected.

janthea How very worrying. Even if you and your daughter turn out to have been a tad over-anxious once this horrible situation has been resolved, you are clearly doing the right thing at the moment. It may not be necessary to be quite so intensely involved generally, but this sounds like a time for strict attention. I hope this gang is rounded up soon.