On 11 Jul 2009 09:42:03 GMT, Andrew Gabriel wrote:

In article ,
Frank Erskine writes:
I literally caught the offending youngster and frogmarched him back to
the school where the deputy head remembered me and was able to deal
with the kid. Since then I had no trouble (although I did move home a
while later). No doubt that nowadays I'd be classed as a pædophile...

Plus assult, kidnap, and probably more I can't think of right now.

20+ years ago, before most people even knew what pædophile meant,
I recall walking around a B&Q (actually, probably a Texas) with a
chap from work, getting some things to plumb in a new sink in his
just bought house. In the middle of the isle was a little lad,
probably about age 3, crying his eyes out because he'd lost daddy.
Colleague picked up child without any hesitation, sat him on his
shoulders, and the 3 of us set off around the store looking for
daddy, who we found quite quickly, and it was smiles all round.

Probably a couple of times in the last 10 years, I've walked into
an isle of a shop and seen a similarly lost child, and found myself
instinctively doing a U-turn and walking away, in case I'm accused
of doing something nasty. That's a change forced on society by the
continuous campaigning of the likes of the NSPCC, supposedly for
the protection of children, which I find abhorrent, but that's
where we now are, sadly.

I've done very similar - usually hung around far enough away to not be
accused of anything, but close enough to keep an eye on the child to make
sure nothing happens, until either a parent or a woman arrives.

SteveW