Had dinner with my friend, his wife and daughter. He believes all the monsters - Jihadi John, Savile, Isis - are exactly the same as others going back hundreds of years. Only the names and reasons for hate have changed. His research is detailed and impeccable.

That's right: at one time it was considered normal for a man to act like a psychopath if he wanted to, and witches were thought of as being the monsters. There was no age of consent either - thank god we've moved on from those times, and now know exactly who the bad guys are.

I discovered from researching my family tree, that in 1867 the age of consent in England was just 13. Prior to 1865 it was just 12. My g.grandfather's mum was just 15 when she gave birth to him, and possibly 14 when he was conceived. I don't think it was a good thing that this happened, and I also believe she may have been assaulted. So pegging the age at 16 is the correct thing to do in my view, even though I still think it's very creepy and highly inappropriate for middle-aged men to fancy 16 year old girls or boys.

yep..The Bogey Man is not The Jimmy Savile

I love the comments on newspapers that say they hate seeing his pic. The tabloids loved publishing Jimmy's wacky pictures presumably because their readers did.

The papers generally assume that readers will buy a copy with a glamorous girl on the front. They don't realise times have changed.

The age of consent was set at 12 in the year 1275. The exact wording was, "It shall be deemed illegal to ravage a maiden who is not of age" - the implication being, that if she was 13 or older, ravaging was acceptable. Interestingly, the Welsh had no equivalent before legal union with England in 1536, but they could impose a fine on a discretionary basis for "taking a girl's maidenhood". So they could get away with rape by paying a fine - how screwed up is that?

So you can see how our society has changed psychologically over the centuries from treating females as men's playthings to fully respecting their right to be treated properly.

Yet oddly human nature seems to change very little.

The percentage of adults that engage in these activities with teenagers is very small, though to read the media, you'd think that it was much higher - especially inside the entertainment business. Definitely a very small percentage; I'd say possibly less than 4%. Though if you are this way inclined yourself, and many of your friends are, you'll probably think that everyone's like it.

Eric Toussaint wrote:
The percentage of adults that engage in these activities with teenagers is very small, though to read the media, you'd think that it was much higher - especially inside the entertainment business. Definitely a very small percentage; I'd say possibly less than 4%. Though if you are this way inclined yourself, and many of your friends are, you'll probably think that everyone's like it.

I think it is "normal" to be attracted to youth, otherwise we would have face creams that create wrinkles and lead weights attached to our breasts to make them droop! but it is a big leap from admiring someone to exploiting them. (or what we used to call "making a fool of himself with a young boy/girl")