Dear Sir/Madam,

I was very moved by Don Boyd’s memoir “A Suitable Boy” which appeared in Sunday’s Observer. It must have taken a lot of courage for him to be so frank about the sexual abuse he was subjected to from one of his favourite teachers.

It set me wondering about the “local paedophile” I well remember from my childhood. A few things of a sexual nature occurred that should not have done between a grown man and a young boy, but nothing bad enough to justify me exposing him now.

It had not occurred to me, until reading Don Boyd’s memoir, just how far that kind of thing can go. When on one occasion my local paedophile tried pulling me towards him, I froze; he backed off and that is as far as it went between us. But now I shudder to think what might have happened with other boys who where perhaps more vulnerable and susceptible to his advances.

If he is still alive, he must now be well into his eighties. If what he did with other boys was no more than what he did with me, the matter can be forgotten, but I am far from sure that is the case.

So what do I do? I’m not prepared to publicly expose him just on the basis of my experiences. On the other hand there might well be others out there with whom he went a lot further and who are still suffering from the consequences.

What is needed is an instance to which I and others can confidentially send the details of our experiences, which would then have the task of evaluating them, not only for the purpose of exposing dangerous paedophiles (past and present, for the sake of their victims), but also to eliminate false and malicious claims.