When pediatricians in the English county of Cleveland identified evidence of rape in 121 children in 1987, they were discredited. Children were sent home and the public assured that there was no widespread problem of sexual abuse.

Renowned journalist Beatrix Campbell shockingly reveals the government s cover-up of expert findings that most of the diagnoses were correct: ministers misled the public, doctors and social workers were denounced and the children were denied their own stories.

The legacy of the Cleveland controversy lived on in child protection practice policing for 30 years. Some children were left unprotected, others died until the government was finally forced to launch the current Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, whose outcome will determine whether the public can be certain that children will be protected in future.