Youngsters' laughter and joy in the shadow of death 'You cannot do the things you did when we were children and you have to be aware of it'

CRAIG-Y-DON paddling pool was packed yesterday. More than a dozen brightly coloured inflatable rafts were being punched round the pool on Llandudno's north shore by excited children yards away from the ranks of flowers that mark the informal memorial for the murdered seven-year-old Sophie Hook.

At first it seemed odd; so many happy children playing near the site of the brutal sexual assault and murder, following Sophie's abduction from a tent in her uncle's back garden.

But the joyful sounds of the youngsters belied the watchful eyes of parents. They were unconvinced by statistics which showed that Britain had the seventh lowest rate of child murders in the world.

"I used to camp out often in my back garden when I was a kid but now I would have to camp with her before I'd let her do it," said Allison Pugh pointing to her seven-year-old daughter, Rhian.

Miss Pugh - who arrived from Flint,...