I WRITE in response to E Coxon's letter in the Barry and District News on June 25.

Now, I don't know if this was written by a man or a woman but if it was a woman she should hang her head in shame for the comment 'I am sure there are many women who during their lifetime could have taken men to court several times a year for friendly gestures that have been misconstrued'.

This is just the sort of pathetic attitude that has left many women and girls who have suffered sexual assault and rape silent because they fear coming forward in case they are not believed and the perpetrators get away with it, because he 'was just being friendly', he 'was just being a bit of a lad' and she should 'just learn to chill out'.

All these expressions are said to negate the seriousness of the issue. So the victim remains silent....she shoulders the blame she places on herself and is left feeling guilty, betrayed and violated.

After all it was JUST a grope, right? WRONG....on so many levels. I wonder how many times the victims of the likes of Jimmy Saville and Rolf Harris were told 'oh, it was only a friendly gesture..it didn't mean anything'?

I am sure everyone would like to 'move on' as you put it - it won't be that easy for the victim when people continue to trivialise the seriousness of the issue.

There's no doubt that Cllr Curtis has courted the press for his various endeavours over the years, off the back of the words of others largely if the remarks of plagiarism made in previous letters to this page are correct. This has just served to over inflate his ego and convince him that anything goes as long as you put some sort of ecological slant on it, you're a good sort of chap and you like animals and wild flowers.

Good deeds are done by countless Barrians day in and day out but they don't feel the need to be constantly publicising the fact. Good deeds don't give you permission to touch anyone without their consent and certainly not a 17 year old girl.

No doubt this will have been a very painful lesson for Cllr Curtis - not everyone it seems is blinded by the halo.

Name and address supplied