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All had at least one qualification that enabled them to work there.

The creche's supervisor was Gay Davidson, who had a reputation for being kind and approachable.

On Wednesday November 20 1991, Gay was contacted by the mother of a three-year-old who attended the creche.

The mother said that she suspected her son had been sexually abused by the creche's only male childcare worker.

The mother, who would later become known by the pseudonym of Ms Magnolia, informed Gay Davidson that she would be keeping her son Jeffrey, not his real name, home from the creche until the male employee was removed.

Gay Davidson immediately leapt into action.

She sought advice from the city council administration and paid a visit to the Magnolia family home alongside a council personnel officer that same day.

Speaking to Ms Magnolia and her husband, Gay received a clear report of what had unfolded.

Their three-year-old son Jeffrey had been exhibiting troubling behaviour for some time.

He could be prone to tantrums, sometimes woke with pain in his legs and could be fussy about his clothes.

Sometimes he didn't want to go to Kreisch.

He used the words penis and vagina as insults.

Ms.

Magnolia had also noticed occasional redness around his anus.

About a month earlier, Jeffrey had said to his father, I don't like Peter's black penis.

Peter seemed to refer to Peter Ellis, the male childcare worker at Jeffrey's creche, but 33-year-old Peter wasn't black.

Jeffrey's father asked if he'd seen Peter's penis or was he just telling a story.

Jeffrey answered the latter, so his father dropped the subject.

But Jeffrey made a similar remark to his mother on Sunday November 17 while having a bath.

Like her husband, Ms Magnolia probed Jeffrey with follow-up questions.