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 have to concur; whereas in the past I would not hesitste to assist, I now
think twice about how to help. I have both organised and been a principal
participant in an annual local carnival put on by a local charity for 25
years. The requirement put on us by the local authority in the contract we
have to sign to use the land now requires all members of the club
participating to have valid CRB checks and all involved in any way with food
to have hygiene certificates..