In the wake of the child abuse scandal in Rotherham, the police in Scotland - or some of them - are calling for the threshold of
evidence used to impose court orders on people who are suspected of committing
sexual offences against children, but who have not been convicted of any crime,
to be lowered
Surely the problem in Rotherham was that there was lots of evidence
against lots of people that manifestly exceeded the threshold for criminal
proceedings, but which was not acted on.
I do wish that agencies would not seize the opportunity, in
the wake of scandals like Rotherham, to call for the introduction of all kinds
of new laws, which are only too likely to result in injustice, when what is
required is the consistent and sustained application of laws that already
exist.
