ONCE again the subject of sexual abuse and paedophilia has been catapulted into the media spotlight and once again we watched in horror as the judge revealed the terrible truth of Ray Whiting and his depraved past.

We discovered that the murderer of Sarah Payne a previous conviction for a sexual attack on a child. Surely this is another reason why public awareness should be raised.

We as parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles need to be armed with more information so we can make more choices about the safety of our children.

We don't want to read about only the more severe cases because, as the Whiting case proves, they are usually preceded by a much lesser attack (of course the victim may beg to differ).

We can no longer choose to bury our heads in the sand. With up to 20 cases of sexual abuse reported daily in York alone, isn't that 20 reasons to open our eyes?

That includes York police who are simply denying we have a rising problem with sex offenders in the city. It is claimed there are only 60 people on the sex offenders register in our area (December 17). Sadly, this cannot be disputed because the public simply does not have access to the information.

Samantha Johnson,

St Stephens Road,

Acomb, York.

Updated: 10:00 Wednesday, December 19, 2001