“The number of reports of sexual abuse on children between January and June this year amounted to 63, Family Minister Chris Said told Parliament yesterday. Answering a question by Evarist Bartolo (PL), the minister said this compared with 118 in the whole of 2011, 188 in 2010 and 165 in 2009” (November 1).

In a Bafta-winning documentary Chosen, Alastair Rolfe, who was himself a victim of sexual abuse when he was young, says: “Successful paedophiles are the ones that aren’t discovered of course and there are plenty of them around. They are people who have all the social graces that you might expect in someone of normal behaviour.

“They’re charming, they have good conversation, they’re caring, they’re intelligent, they’re interested, they’re committed to what they’re doing, they earn respect, they appear like any other member of society quite frankly and you just can’t tell. Sorry but you can’t tell.”

All this should be read alongside the paedophilia cases that we have had where the perpetrators have been reported, tried and convicted.

Before committing the offence, paedophiles convince themselves that they will not be caught. This conviction is the hidden deceit in the devil’s temptation.

Let the reports mentioned above be a red light to them before it is too late. Let them bear in mind Christ’s harsh words for those who scandalise the little ones: “it is profitable for him that a great millstone should be hanged about his neck and that he should be sunk in the depth of the sea.”

Wise people learn from the experience of others.