ABSTRACT
Children who need other people to care for their more intimate needs or who, for one reason or another, depend on the attention of others more than is usual for ordinary children are especially open to the risk of sexual abuse. This is particularly so for children with learning disabilities, or mentally handicapped children as they are still sometimes called. Article 6 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Mentally Retarded Persons states that ‘the mentally retarded person has a right to protection from exploitation, abuse and degrading treatment’. But rights are one thing; reality is another.
