Is it time for a closer reexamination of some of the celebrity paedo cases? Maybe they were all guilty but one or two of the individual convictions seem to have been nodded through on the "pattern of behaviour" or even "no smoke without fire" theories.

Eg that one of Rolf's where there was no evidence he was ever at the theatre or town in question, and does kissing a young girl up the arm mean anything more than a light-hearted game based on kissing her hand (kissing hands has gone out of fashion in recent decades)?

Maybe they were all at it. I did not follow the cases very closely. But maybe the papers, police and, yes, the public got caught up in a sort of collective hysteria that is of a piece with believing the Nick allegations and raiding Cliff's house with helicopters overhead.