A MAN has appeared in court charged in connection with the abduction of a six-year-old child, allegedly taken whilst playing in the street near her Burnley home.

Over the years, stories of abduction have bred panic and fear in parents and caused many to ban their youngsters from venturing outside unattended.

It’s a difficult subject. When mine were young, neighbours took it in turns to watch over our kids when they were playing out. Some used to bring out a deckchair and a bottle of wine, while others used to stand around gossiping. But there was a blanket of supervision.

I was one of those paranoid mums. When my son was two, Jamie Bulger – who was the same age – was snatched, tortured and murdered by two 10-year-olds, Jon Venables and Robert Thompson. The sale of child harnesses went through the roof and every parent was on high alert.

A woman in M&S once made me feel like a bad mother because I’d put my two, who were two and five, in the shopping trolley while I shopped.

The five-year-old being the mischievous chappie he was (still is!) started rocking the trolley and both were catapulted out of it, ending up in a screaming writhing heap on the floor.

Assistants brandishing bags of frozen peas appeared from nowhere to ice the bumps on their heads.

I cried, in anger and self pity, because I’d wanted to confine them so they wouldn’t be snatched, so convinced was I that a predator was lurking around every corner.

Looking back on it now it seems absurd, particularly because at nine years of age I walked two miles to school every day on my own. One day, I noticed a red-haired man in work clothes was standing by the side of the road. I noticed because I had red hair and so did my dad.

The next morning he was there again. On day three he asked if he could walk with me. It didn’t feel right, but being the polite little girl I was, I nodded my head. Within a minute he’d asked me if I knew what a sexual word meant. I did, thanks to my elder sister, but why was he asking me?

I was terrified and set off running as fast as I could. I must have covered a mile before I fell over and gashed my knee and a local shopkeeper picked me up and I blubbed what had happened.

The point is, even at that young age, I knew I had to run when I felt threatened.

Better to teach children to be observant and rely on their feelings.