The residents of a council estate in the town of Portsmouth revelled in the media attention - until the cameras turned on them, reports Jenny McCartney. As the evening light fades, a few children, clad in skimpy hot-weather clothes, chase each other around the park in the Paulsgrove estate, Portsmouth, southern England. A baby snoozes in its pram.
Paedophiles now occupy the space once filled by the bogeyman, the witch and the devil.
No one seems to know quite where they are, or who they are, or who might turn out to be possessed by the sexual urges that draw them inexorably towards children. Whoever they are, the parents in Paulsgrove are certain that they must be hunted down and expelled from the community, for what they have done and what they might yet do. For more than a week, there have been furious protests in Paulsgrove, as crowds of up to 300 people demonstrated against the shadowy presence of paedophiles in their midst. Sex case, sex case. By Thursday night, the streets were quiet.