I AM a single mum of three who has experienced quite a bit of life the good, the bad and the ugly but one thing never changes!

When kids grow into adults they seem to forget ever being kids.

I've lived in the suburbs and on the council estates and I've witnessed child abuse on every level.

We all see it in one form or another every day, from bullying at school to the worst case scenarios and all anyone ever does when we read it in the paper is try to place the blame.

We can't just turn a blind eye because parents fail to co-operate! We can't exclude a victim of bullying for sticking up for themselves!

We keep ignoring these problems and the perpetrator is left unchecked and unpunished.

Inevitably they will repeat the offence, sometimes with dire results.

If parents fail to co-operate they invariably have something to hide otherwise they would be trying to prove their innocence.

Send the police with social services if need be but we can't keep ignoring it! Children are dying.

MARY NEEDHAM, Ballantrea Road, Shadsworth, Blackburn.