To: et.letters@telegraph.co.uk
Re: Children let down, not just by one "rotten apple", but by the whole damned barrel!
Date: Thu, 17 July 2003 

Dear Editors,

The Roman Catholic Church, it seems, is a haven not only for sexual abusers (Police to question bishops in sex inquiry, 26 Oct. 2002), but also for fraudsters ('Greedy' head guilty of milking school funds, 16 July 2003).

Many will defend the Church, saying that it cannot be blamed for harbouring the occasional "rotten apple", but I disagree. 

Apparently Colleen McCabe tyrannised her subordinates at the school, while deceiving her superiors - over a period of 5 years! 

What are the children at the school to make of the whole assemblage of "adults" responsible for their well-fare, education and moral guidance? They have been badly let down not just by one "rotten apple", but by the whole damned barrel!

Our condemnation of Colleen McCabe, who the commissioned psychiatric reports may well show to be suffering from some mental or emotion disorder ("shopaholism", perhaps), should not blind us to the culpability of those people, and the system within which they continue to operate, who placed her in such a responsible position and allowed her to abuse it for so long.