A middle-aged psychology student is dedicating her life to helping notorious child killers, sex offenders and murderers - by falling in LOVE with them. Ray Wyre is named on the list alongside the likes of disgraced MP Cyril Smith, but according to a former colleague of Wyre's this is nothing but a slur upon his reputation.

Yet these fallacies have filtered into official policy. Of course, actual sexual abuse of children inspires particular revulsion. But it looks as though people who possess images of such abuse – or computer-generated scenarios, which do not display anything ‘real’– must now carry the can for those who commit actual offences against children.

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There are no circumstances in which a pre-pubertal child can be in a sexual relationship with an adult which is not harmful, and which is voluntary on the child's part. To me, this is not an academic debate. When you see a film of a man putting his penis into a child's mouth, the child chokes, doesn't it? Yet the abuser will say, 'It was just a blow job, guv]' Words sound so innocuous. To us, 'oral sex' means something pleasurable. To a child, it's invasive and disgusting. As a therapist, but also as a member of society, I cannot be unaffected by the demonised identity that sex offenders embody in the public mind. Some behaviour (sex offences, particularly against children) is considered taboo and polluting, provoking particular anxiety among practitioners. Other behaviour (ie violent armed robbery) may be equally harmful yet not provoke pollution beliefs. 4 Below are two quotes from my own research into the experiences of probation officers working with sex offenders, which illustrate their conflicted feelings. 5 I have worked with men who have abducted and killed children. Often, their capture has failed to save the child and has not come about through good police work.

Friends and colleagues praised his “tireless” and “pioneering” work over 30 years to raise awareness of sexual abuse against children and the need to rehabilitate offenders. I once asked an abductor who had killed girls how we could stop him. He said: “I suppose you would have to chain a child to the mother”. But he added: “No, that would not work. I would take both”. Ray Wyre was called to give evidence as an expert witness. His evidence was described as both "illuminating and unhelpful". in the Cook Report but handled the 'Help Lines' after the programme. As you can see from the JET report and theSmith A. Sex offenders and the probation officers who supervise them: how relevant are strength-based approaches? [Online.] Cardiff: Cardiff University School of Social Sciences; 2009. http://orca.cf.ac.uk/55909/1/U584448.pdf