When paediatricians in Cleveland, in the North East of England, identified evidence of rape in 121 children seen in hospital in 1987, they were discredited. Children were sent home and the public assured that there was no widespread problem of sexual abuse. Renowned journalist Beatrix Campbell shockingly reveals the government's cover-up of expert findings that most of the diagnoses were correct: ministers misled the public, doctors and social workers were denounced and the children were denied their own stories. The legacy of the Cleveland controversy lived on in child protection practice for 30 years until the government was forced to launch the current Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse, whose outcome will determine whether children will be protected in future.