No-one's come on here yet to mention Phil Barlow yet as far as I'm aware (sorry if I've missed anything).

I'm assuming that a fair few regular posters are aware of his conviction and I guess I'm just a little surprised that, when you bear in mind the absolute nonsense many of us talk about on here, nobody has anything to say about something that is genuinely significant.

Do people think it's a bit of a wake-up call for us in our churches? I was only told about it on Monday night and it has made me re-evaluate what I'm doing at my church (I'm child protection co-ordinator).

I guess that it is such a sensitive issue that people may not want to be posting about it on a public forum, but there is a flipside to this: when it comes to child abuse, the Church has been enduring a pretty massive - and completely justified - hammering over the past few years (doesn't make a difference whether its the Catholic Church or any other - we're all the same Church, especially to those people who don't share our faith) and so much of that is down to a lack of openness.

So, I'm not asking people to post. I'm just saying that if people want to post about it - in a measured way, a sensible way - then I hope that they don't feel like they can't. In a way, it's probably worth a chat.

I'm not sure it's a wake up call as such, more a reminder that this sort of thing can happen, and that's why child protection meetings etc are so important, to remind us all of our responsibilities, and to be aware of what could be going on. There's been a fair few of these types of stories in the past, but this one obviously feels a lot closer to home. Unfortunately, the church does seem to be a place where this type of thing can happen, and it doesn't seem to be very good at dealing with it when it does. Certainly there have been lots of rumours (if not evidence - I'm not sure) about churches trying to cover up this type of thing, which whatever the reason behind it, the perception is that it is being ignored and not treated as important. I agree Dave that churches would be better to be open about this sort of thing, but the instinctive reaction seems to be to close up shop.

I knew about the charges in August 2010, sadly I know people who were in the witness box appearing for the prosecution.

It is in football as well. About 12 months ago the Bath referees Society had a visit from the Somerset FA welfare officer who has responsibility for Child protection issues. He said that nationwide at least 20 refs were under investigation for similar offences, they were involved in boys and girls youth football. All Refs in Somerset have to be CRB cleared, but of course in the cold light of dawn this can mean nothing.

A very serious warning to us all.