The article examines an often cited incident involving a paediatrician who was mistaken for a paedophile due to a confusion between their job titles. While this incident is frequently referenced to warn about hysteria over sex offenders, the true details have become confused over time. The article traces the incident back to August 2000 in Newport, Wales where a female paediatrician returned home from work to find "paedo" spray painted on her door. Local police believe it was a misunderstanding and there is no evidence of any mob or threats of violence against the paediatrician. However, over time the story has been exaggerated and distorted, with conflicting reports about location, details of events, and whether any mob was actually involved.
2. Whispering game By Brendan O'Neill BBC 2006
The paediatrician confused with a paedophile has become a cautionary tale
against hysteria over sex offenders. But the details have become confused,
even down to whether it was a male or female doctor. What really
happened?
Whenever the debate about sex offenders rears its ugly head, we are
reminded of this incident and its cruel irony: how protesters targeted a
paediatrician (a doctor who cares for children) because his or her job title
sounded vaguely like paedophile (a sexual deviant attracted to children).
Last month, when education secretary Ruth Kelly was under pressure to
reveal how many individuals on the Sex Offenders Register work in our
schools, various newspapers revisited the paediatrician/paedophile story.
A columnist for the Independent criticised the tabloid attacks on Kelly,
warning that we might once again end up with a "howling mob" consumed by
a "paediatrician-bashing hysteria".
The Glasgow Herald lamented the current "hysteria over alleged sex
offenders", and reminded us of the "illiterate lynch mob" that attacked the
home of a paediatrician the last time there was such hysteria.
3. Who, what, where?
The paediatrician incident is mentioned endlessly, but rarely examined in detail.
Commentators refer to it all of the time but don't explain where and when it took
place, and what exactly happened.
It was part of a wave of incidents sparked by Sarah Payne's murder. There was indeed
an incident, in 2000, involving a paediatrician who was mistakenly labelled a
"paedo", but there is little evidence that it involved any kind of hysterical mob. In
fact, it was a relatively minor incident, which has been exaggerated and distorted in
the re-telling - and turned into a symbol of mass hysteria among the tabloid-reading
sections of the population.
If you search the web or back issues of newspapers to discover the truth of the
paediatrician-bashing incident, expect to be confused. Some reports say a male
paediatrician was attacked, others that it was a female paediatrician. There are
clashing reports of where the incident took place. Some say it was in south
Wales, others that it was in Portsmouth. In an article in 2001, the Daily Mail asked:
"Who can forget the targeting of an innocent children's doctor in Portsmouth by a
populace too ignorant and enraged to recognise the difference between paedophile
and paediatrician?"
An online magazine, The Register, also says that it was in Portsmouth that "dictionary-
starved and enraged mobs attacked a paediatrician". Yet on a discussion board of a
website that focuses on strange events, one contributor says the incident took place in
London.
4. Lynch Mob
There are conflicting reports as to what happened. A 2001 Guardian article
says a female paediatrician was "hounded" from her home by her own
"neighbours, who confused 'paediatrician' with 'paedophile'.” Some reports
say the outside of the paediatrician's home was daubed with "paedo", others
say the paediatrician woke one morning to find "the term 'paedo' spray-
painted all over her walls" - which suggests breaking and entering as well as
vandalism. According to some accounts she was asleep in the house while
the mob vandalised it; according to others she only discovered the vandalism
upon returning from work. Some say it was far more serious than just
offensive graffiti.
In 2003, a Northern Irish newspaper recalled the time that "Portsmouth
became famous when paedophile-hunting locals chased a paediatrician down
the street" (there's that mention of Portsmouth again). This account suggests
the paediatrician may have been in real physical danger. A student
newspaper at the University of Essex described how "a group of people in
Portsmouth... burned down a paediatrician's office in righteous anger.” On
one online discussion board it said that "a howling mob stoned [the
paediatrician's] house and firebombed it". In the mainstream
media, meanwhile, there are clashing reports over whether the paediatrician
was attacked, hounded, chased or abused, but they all agree that it was an
"hysterical mob" that did it.
5. Police talk
Just what is the truth? In August 2000, a female paediatrician consultant called Yvette Cloete was
indeed labelled a "paedo" after a campaign by the News of the World to name and shame paedophiles
in the community. The incident took place in Newport, Gwent, not in Portsmouth (where there had
been anti-paedophile protests after eight-year-old Sarah Payne was murdered) or London.
Dr Cloete returned from work at the Royal Gwent Hospital to find "paedo" spray-painted on her front
door. Local police believe the graffiti was written by someone who confused her job title with the word
paedophile. It was no doubt a very distressing incident for Ms Cloete, who decided to move home
shortly afterwards. But there is no evidence that a mob was involved or of any threats or incidents of
physical pressure or violence. "Why let the truth get in the way of a good story?" says Chief Inspector
Andrew Adams, of Gwent Police, who was the liaison officer in charge when news of this incident broke
six years ago. He remembers very well that stressful night, when he gave 18 live interviews to various
media outlets. "There was no big mob," he says. "Nothing like that happened. I know because I was
there and I was involved. The lady was not in her home when it happened. She came home from work
to see her door daubed with anti-paedophile graffiti. "When we heard about it we set about dispelling
the rumours that she or anyone else in that house was a paedophile. We explained to the local
community the difference between paediatrician and paedophile."
Who did the graffiti? Mr Adams says he still isn't sure. "We think it was youngsters, probably someone
in the 12 to 17 age bracket.” And the community was outraged by the incident and "supportive of the
woman involved", he says.
Nevertheless, the story has taken on a life of its own, transformed into a dire warning about hysterical
mobs who threaten the fabric of our nation. The irony is that some in the media, in challenging the
scaremongering over sex offenders, indulge in some scaremongering of their own. They raise fears
about violent tabloid-reading protesters who will attack, hound and destroy a paediatrician - which
seem to be just as unfounded as the fears about thousands of paedophiles stalking the land.