Judge Julian Hall - who once suggested a paedophile should buy hissix-year-old victim a bicycle to "cheer her up" - argued the girl inthis recent case was "provocatively dressed" and "very disturbed, veryneedy and sexually precocious". No wonder Feltz was spitting bile.
"Judge Hall has done the unthinkable," she writes. "He has made a10-year-old child somehow responsible for her own rape."
Lesley Thomas of The Daily Telegraph also condemned the ruling but wenton to take a different tack. In a column entitled "Why do we dresschildren like tarts?" she suggested the girl's local authority guardians- she was in care - were at fault for letting her out in inappropriateclothing. Is it really reasonable to suggest social workers could andshould ban children from wearing outfits sported by many of their peers?Or that the way this child was dressed should in any way been seen as anexcuse for such a despicable act?
- Plenty of papers picked up on a survey by a child trust fund provider,which calculated children today rake in about 20m a year from thetooth fairy.
"David White, chief executive of the Children's Mutual, said tooth fairyinflation comes close to that of house prices," reported the Daily Mail,proving the paper never misses an opportunity to talk about houseprices.
- "Children are being given the chance to design gargoyles for theBodleian Library building," reported the BBC news web site.
Could this be the perfect tribute to a departing PM or perhaps even anew one? Or maybe England's children's commissioner Al Aynsley Greenwould like to be immortalised in stone? It would certainly be a cheaperway of raising his profile than his office's recent 93,000rebrand.
SOUNDBITE
"I tried to save myself and my children. No-one will stand up for us inPakistan. We came here for refuge, not benefits" - Saima Asim, a35-year-old asylum seeker who - along with her two sons - is facingdeportation.
