Shannon stepfather remanded in custody over child porn!

He was seen as the odd one out by those looking in as this case became more than just a matter of a nine-year old disappearing. Craig Meehan is definitely not a well-balanced person. The police obviously had their doubts about him as soon as they entered his house. It's a pity social services hadn't seen all this coming. The attitude with them appears to be that smoke is no real indicator of fire. They wait until a roaring blaze is in place before someone twigs!

The police did the right thing in checking up on Meehan. But they can't rectify the ills in society. Their job is to investigate criminality and wrongdoing. Society has to get a grip of the way life is being debased.

Melanie Phillips in the Daily Mail has a column dedicated to her opinions on life. I don't always agree with her, but on this she is right. She wrote that Karen Matthews, the mother of Shannon who thankfully was discovered alive and well, referred to her daughter and one of her other six children as "twins". These children are actually aged nine and ten. But Ms Matthews says they are twins because she thinks that's what you call children who have the same father. The level of her understanding is very basic, but we are all prepared to accept this, until something really bad happens.

Can it be right, in the 21st Century, for children like Shannon to grow up in an environment like that? The answer must be no. We can change this, by being supportive neighbours to each other, by caring about people. All too often, for those who have fallen into an area of humanity that most of us deny exists, we turn away.

Meehan is being charged over child pornography. I'll bet that it comes out that he too was abused. If we know that this is mostly cyclical, that it just goes down the generations, are we too stupid to stop it? Or are we afraid of what might be uncovered?

In Jersey they tried to cover up child abuse. But those senators are no less guilty than we are if we let it go on under our noses. It's no use telling a nosey reporter that it was "bound to happen" after it happened. We must stop it now.

I really hope Craig Meehan will be the last of his line!