David Southall's defenders

Iain Sharpe remarks upon the "quasi-religious zeal" of the 38 paediatricians who had a letter in support of Professor David Southall published in yesterday’s Guardian.

What struck me was the letter's claim that:

There is a determined campaign to deny the existence and reality of child abuse in all its forms, led by a small group, aided and abetted by some journalists and politicians. This group targets prominent professionals in the field, especially paediatricians. Unable to respond publicly, there is no counterbalancing voice for the cause of abused children, so the media presents a completely one-sided picture.

I find this quite bizarre. If you go into W. H. Smith's in Leicester you will find an entire section devoted to memoirs of abused childhoods. If you enjoy books with titles like No, Daddy, No - and there must be lots of people who do - there is an almost unlimited supply of them.

Far from seeking to deny the existence of child abuse as a society, we give every indication that we are obsessed with it.