The NSPCC on their involvement with the Eastenders paedophilia storyline

Full Article: http://www.stopinjusticenow.com/News_0970.htm

I was approached in March this year by two members of the EastEnders research team on behalf of executive producer Diedrick Santer, to say they were thinking of running a grooming storyline and asked if I thought this was the sort of thing that needed to be aired. I said, yes, absolutely. Its a very important issue and of course EastEnders is a hugely popular programme, reaching over nine million homes every week so the message would reach a wide audience.
The writers then gave me the storyline which I was allowed to modify and shortly after that the scripts began arriving. They were very detailed but stuck to the parts which involved the main characters involved in the grooming plot.
There were only two developments which concerned me and one of these involved Whitney the paedophiles target self harming. I asked them to pull that line because although it can often be part of a sex abuse story I felt it needed to be told in its own way and it could have introduced unnecessary complications. I felt it was hard to cover both issues at the same time.
The second area where I asked for changes hinged on Tony- the groomer never having sex with his girlfriend, Bianca. This is not realistic and might be dangerous because it gives the message that paedophiles do not have sex with adults - and thats not true.