When I lived in Devon, which is a few years ago now, I worked with a very nice woman who was a part-time magistrate. (For friends outside the UK, magistrates are all part-time volunteers - carefully selected and trained - who judge all cases initially, with the more serious cases being sent on to the Crown Court by the magistrate.) Because of the way the magistrates' court operates, she sat in various courtrooms across Devon and Cornwall.
During one of our conversations about this fascinating role, she told me that the magistrates’ courts this part of England see disproportionately large numbers of cases involving paedophilia. It was something that magistrates in Devon and Cornwall had to get used to and learn to deal with. I asked her why she thought this was the case. Why would this beautiful area of the country, popular with holidaymakers and tourists and retired people, be a magnet for paedophilic men?
The answer? According to my friend, and the collective wisdom of the magistrates and the police, developed over many decades, it’s because Devon and Cornwall have some of the best beaches in the UK. All summer, there are thousands of children in swimsuits (or just a nappy, or naked) at beaches all round the coast.
Very soon after she told me, I took my son (then nine years old) and a group of four of his friends of the same age to the beach. As the five of them jumped in and out of the waves in their shortie wetsuits, I noticed a man on his own looking at them, and I noticed the way the wet neoprene emphasised their slender bodies and cute little bums.
Of course, now I know this, every time I go to the beach, I notice the men on their own. I’d never noticed them before, because they make every effort not to be noticeable. Sitting on benches, sitting on the sand, at a distance from other people. Fully dressed, no bag of beach paraphernalia, not looking around to see where the rest of their family has got to.
Next time you go to the beach, you will see them too.
Ocean City, New Jersey is an absolute haven for them. Had a horrifying experience where a man was so emboldened by the city's "pretend it's not a problem so it doesn't affect the tourist trade" attitude (I was blissfully unaware of this problem obvs) that he followed my four year old son into the ocean to "play" after engaging him with a kite a few minutes before. I was on my own and had to wade in to get my son (who thought the guy was great craic and wouldn't come out to me though I was desperately pleading) with my 9 month old daughter attached to me in a sling. Got my son, glared at the man and told him to get away from us and stumbled back to our flat to ring police. they were utterly and completely dismissive. Bordering on aggressive. I was afraid to even leave the flat at that point and had it rented for the summer for just me and the two kids and it was only early June. I had just left my husband. At a loss, I rang the husband I had just taken great pains to extricate myself and kids from and he came the next day, went with us to the beach and stayed up on boardwalk to watch us and in minutes the SAME MAN went right for us. I signalled to my ex who approached the pedo at first calmly but then started roaring at him when the pedo coped he'd been caught and started to run. Husb chased him, lost him. We called OC police again figuring they HAD to listen now and they weren't remotely interested in what went down but gave my foreign, odd-looking husband the shake down and took HIM in to the station until it was proven he did in fact have a green card. Corrupt, absolute cesspit is ocean city, NJ. Had I a sliver of energy about me at the time, I would have screamed the damn state down. Few years later and a few other soul crushingly demoralising experiences I left the country with the same husband I'd been trying to separate from that summer and stepped into another hellscape with HIS different class of paraphilic ass. Oh I know but let's "destigmatize" them. FFS.