I felt sick reading the shocking and disturbing story of sexual abuse in last week’s edition of The Impartial Reporter.

Any story of sexual abuse is difficult to comprehend, but reading about the abuse of a child aged just four-years-old – still a baby in many people’s eyes – is both sickening and utterly heart wrenching.

The PSNI’s handing of the case, its failure to act on allegations, and the fact that the people involved in such depravity are still living in the community, having never been questioned, leaves a lot of questions about how victims of abuse are treated.

Unfortunately, here on this island, child sexual abuse is a subject we are all too accustomed to. But it doesn’t make it any less horrifying to read about.

My daughter is four. She is all the things you expect from a typical four-year-old; funny, inquisitive, playful, loud, spontaneous, but most of all, she is innocent and carefree. She does not yet carry any weights of responsibility.

Even thinking about such cruelty towards a beautiful child makes me sick in the pit of my stomach.

I can’t even begin to imagine the horror that the girl this newspaper has called ‘Emma’ and her family have suffered because of the horrific abuse she was subjected to on a regular basis over the course of many years by someone her family entrusted with their daughter’s care. Emma was robbed of her innocence and has been dealing with the pain ever since.

You don’t have to be a parent to appreciate the horrific nature of Emma’s story; the numbers of men involved in the alleged abuse, the grooming by a woman who was supposed to care for her and others.

Few people can fathom how anyone could commit such acts of wickedness.

All of this is compounded by the fact that those responsible are still living freely in the community and have never had to answer for their alleged crimes, in part because the police scared off a survivor, a young woman in her early twenties, who was brave enough to contact them in 2017.

They way the PSNI handled Emma’s allegations – telling her she would have to forfeit her anonymity and refusing to allow her a counsellor or solicitor to accompany her to any interviews – demonstrates incompetence and a total lack of understanding about sexual abuse and how it impacts victims.

And yet, sadly, it is not a complete shock as it is a story told time and time again by survivors.

Earlier this year it was reported during the trial in North Yorkshire of a man accused of sexually abusing his teenage daughter, that police told her she would be considered ‘the biggest slag going’ if she took it further. When Carol Higgins, now 49, first reported the abuse in 1985 she was told proceeding further would “blacken her name”. Her father, Elliott Appleyard is now serving 20 years in jail for the crimes.

I’m not blaming the police. The people who mastermind and carry out such horrific abuse of children are wholly responsible for the pain and suffering they cause. But questions need to be answered and lessons learned to ensure all allegations are treated seriously and all survivors are treated with respect and compassion.

It is somewhat reassuring that the PSNI’s Detective Superintendent Anne Marks has promised that the police will now respond supportively to all allegations of abuse.

Certainly, any person with information about sexual abuse – whether they are survivors or members of the public with information – must have confidence in the police, that they will take their claims seriously and offer the correct legal protection.

It has been said many times over the course of several weeks that this paper has been publishing so many shocking stories of abuse, but it is worth repeating, that it is only for the bravery of the survivors who have come forward to tell their stories that a light is finally being shone on levels of depravity and evil that few of us thought possible on our doorstep.

My only hope is that all of those responsible are brought to justice.