Paedophile ring just “tip of the iceberg”

A LEADING Dundee campaigner against the abuse of children last night said she believed the true scale of paedophilia in Scotland was being greatly underestimated.

Laurie Matthew, co-ordinator of Dundee personal safety and abuse prevention charity 18 & Under, spoke out after the High Court in Edinburgh sentenced six men involved in Scotland’s worst-ever paedophile ring to a total of 44 years in jail.

Members of the group—including Dundonian Craig Boath and Fifer Colin Slaven—were convicted of offences involving the possession of thousands of indecent images of children.

Insurance worker Boath was also found guilty of conspiring to participate in the sexual abuse of children.

Ms Matthew last night said she believed the exposed paedophile ring was the “tip of the iceberg” and called for violence and abuse prevention programmes to be introduced to nursery and primary schools to raise awareness of the problem at the earliest possible opportunity.

She also said more had to be done to educate adults on the dangers posed by paedophiles and to foster a society where people are not scared to pass on information to the authorities when they suspect the abuse of children is taking place.

Ms Matthew said, “Unfortunately, I speak to people daily who tell me there are paedophile rings in Dundee and all over the place.

“We get a lot of stuff where people are telling us it (paedophilia) is organised, carefully planned.

“If you only believed a hundredth of it—it is just mind-boggling.

“There is a huge, huge market for this stuff and where there is a market there are people making money.”

She added, “We have helped quite a few survivors who have moved away from these rings.

“If there was a safe way of sharing information (for the victims) then maybe we could get some of these people (the perpetrators) in time.

“It is the tip of the iceberg and people need to be alert for their children.

“What we need to remember is that some of these people who are exposed are seemingly respectable. They can be anybody.”

Ms Matthew said the responsibility for children’s welfare lay with every member of society.

She said, “We all have to take charge of this. We can’t just leave it to the police and social services—we need to help them do their job.

“When we had our (VIP) prevention programme evaluated it showed it does actually work. The cost of it is less than a pint of beer to give it to every child. What price a child’s life?

“It wouldn’t have helped the children involved in this particular case but, by God, it would have helped a whole lot of other kids.”

Meanwhile, Children 1st last night called for greater recognition that producing pornographic images of children is not a victimless crime.

Spokesman Tom Roberts said, “The judge in this case has said he hopes that these sentences will act as a deterrent—we sincerely hope that proves to be true.

“Children 1st want to see sentences that work, that recognise the seriousness of the offence and that prevent re-offending.”

He added, “We have consistently called for all convicted sex offenders to undergo effective treatment programmes and for stringent supervision and monitoring arrangements to ensure that children are kept safe.

“The judge has clearly recognised that downloading child pornography is not a victimless crime but is a ‘crime of the most serious nature.’

“Behind every image there is a real child who has suffered in the making of that image.

“People who download often thousands of these photos create demand for new images which are supplied through the exploitation of children.

“Our greatest concern is that the children and families receive the long-term support they will need to rebuild their lives.”