I wonder whether the victims or witnesses feel this is a just sentence. Or whether they’re throwing their hands up and cursing that they put themselves through the system at all.

He’s 57 now; he’ll be nearly 67 after his time – if he serves it all. And ‘having sex with a child under 13’? Surely that means rape. On their behalf I’m outraged and furious.

Does anyone really understand what sexual abuse does to the victims? Let me explain.

A girl under 13 is thinking about dressing up dolls and pretend war games if they’re male; they might watch TV programmes with an easily missed reference to adult activities and most likely will have had a talk with their parents/carers about sex and pregnancy.

They will not have detailed, first-hand knowledge of sex. If they do, they’ve already been abused.

Having a grown up man touch you and breath on you, try to kiss you develops a feeling of disgust: self-disgust.

So the various symptoms associated with abused children – eating disorders, self-harm, alcohol/drug abuse, guilt (‘was it my fault?’) anger, social isolation, destructiveness, loss of interest in self – are signs of that disgust turned inwards. And some of them attempts to blot out, forget, erase their violation.

Sexual activity in the victim is often tainted by those feelings of shame and feeling ‘dirty’ – doesn’t make for balanced relationships. So what do victims do? Choose someone who will behave in a way they’re used to: abuse them.

Haven’t we learnt anything yet?

So a laughable sentence of nine and a half year for his nine crimes… well… I can only grieve and write this piece in an attempt to educate.

It takes minutes to abuse a child. Solomons spends a year (maybe) in confinement pondering (or not) his assaults. (Prison isn’t even a suitable place for these perpetrators.)

The child spends their entire life in a murky, cold, lonely cell which is the effect of abuse: they remember it for a lifetime.

I refuse to use the word ‘survivors’. That may have been coined by grown ups with no clue about whether these young people are surviving in any real terms: a convenient way of putting them to one side. I wish these victims well.