is based on seeking to help offenders realise WHY we did what we did and help us understand how to do better in the future. It works hard to avoid labelling - the facilitators are very clear about saying we are men who have committed a sexual offence, not 'sex offenders'! There are 4 blocks; in the first one you present an account of your offence - what was the run up and why it occurred. In the second you look harder at your preparations to do it - what gave you permission to offend, how you 'groomed' your victim, what was wrong with your life that you ended up in this situation. The third block allows you to review what sorts of thoughts and behaviours to avoid in the future to reduce your risk, whilst the last block focuses on 'future me' - how you are going to build your life in the future.

At each stage all the members of the group are encouraged to ask hard questions about the material you are presenting in an attempt to help the person get real about their offence, behaviours and attitudes. But it is done in a gentle and respectful way - no 'ranting'....

None of the others I've come across on the course so far seem to be BLs or GLs - though their victims have often been children, it has been largely as a result of opportunistic attacks than because that has been their sexuality.

I believe the course has been of little value for me because my offence is so long ago and I have worked out already the issues that they expect you to have to work through in the course; as a result I have been barely engaged with the process - though doing well enough to keep them satisfied. However I have seen it be very helpful to others; as such I feel that it is a useful course for many of the people on it and will do them some good.

The claim is that it reduces the probability of reoffending by 25% for those who go on it. I'm willing to believe that it does some good, though I suspect those figures are biased by their selecting people willing to engage with the process, who by definition are those most likely to have sorted themselves out.