I thought this was a myth

Normally, I’d be very tempted to call BS on this story, as all of the so-called Satanic sex abuse cases in the States were concocted by child care bureaucrats. However, in this case, the reported filming of the alleged abuse forces one maintain an open mind for the time being:

Three women teachers were among six people arrested yesterday accused of sedating and sexually abusing children as young as 3 at a school near Rome.

The teachers — two of whom are grandmothers who had taught at the school and at Sunday school for decades — are said to have part in the repeated abuse of 15 children aged 3 and 5 for a year, filming them in sexual acts with satanic overtones at the teachers’ homes and in a wood.

The others arrested were a female caretaker, a former producer of children’s programmes for the state television station RAI, and a local petrol pump attendant. The television producer is married to one of the arrested teachers.

The alleged abuse — in the town of Rignano Flaminio, 25 miles (40km) north of Rome — came to light when some of the children began describing their “games” to their parents. They drew pictures of a “man in black” who wore a hood and drank his own blood, and said they had played a game in which “a wolf chases a squirrel and eats it”.

Color me skeptical for the time being. But if it turns out to be true, we may see a revival of witch burnings and justly so.

What I can’t figure out is why people are always so surprised when it turns out that it’s the teachers and coaches who are abusing the kids. It’s Nature 101. Predators always go where the prey is. I assume that anyone who is tremendously enthusiastic about spending lots of time with kids has something wrong with them, especially if it’s a man with no children of his own.