NATALIE Hick may only be 13, but she is brave beyond her years.
The Strensall teenager stood up to predator Terry Delaney - and now she has waived her rights to anonymity and spoken to The Press. She has done so in order to highlight this newspaper's campaign to change the rules about who is included on the Sex Offenders' Register. At present, a stranger who kidnaps a child is not registered as a sex offender, thanks to an outrageous loophole in the law. This makes no sense at all and abduction should be reclassified as a sexual offence as quickly as possible.
Sara Payne, whose daughter, Sarah, was abducted and murdered by a paedophile, has given her strongest backing to our campaign to have the law changed. That such a symbol of parental grief and suffering should lend her weight to the issue can only give it greater power and poignancy.
Natalie displayed great sense and courage when she was approached by Delaney at a bus stop in York. She did not panic, she refused to go with this 52-year-old stranger and she gave him a false name.
Now Natalie is showing her bravery all over again by coming forward and talking openly about her ordeal. She could have stayed silent, she could have hidden from what happened to her, hoping that the memories would go away - but, instead, she has made a courageous stand by speaking to her local newspaper.
She has done this because she wants to see abductors such as Delaney - who was jailed for four years last week - put on the Sex Offenders' Register, where they clearly belong.
If the law has a heart, it will listen to what Natalie has to say about her own horrible experience - and then it will act.
Updated: 09:54 Friday, May 05, 2006
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