IT’S hard to imagine the awfulness of becoming the child victim of a sexual predator.

Sexual abuse leaves scars which can last a lifetime and often wreck the ability to ever form a normal, loving relationship in adulthood.

Almost as destructive as the effect of the offences is the fact that many victims, having forced themselves to take the brave step of reporting what happened, find that they are not believed.

The avalanche of offences revealed after Jimmy Savile’s death is a good example.

A number of his victims had tried to talk to responsible adults about their ordeals but been labelled as fantasists when the sex beast himself dismissed their stories.

Now at last perhaps the tide is turning.

The jailing of 67-year-old Keith Royal for more than six years is a case in point.

His victim went to the police twenty years ago but was not believed.

In May this year she tried again and court action followed.

Such allegations must be treated seriously from the start. No child should have to wait 20 years to be believed.