A TEDDY bears' picnic, a walk in the country, and a bicycle ride the simple pleasures of childhood which naturally evoke the idyllic summer routines of every school holiday. Yet the machete attack at an infants school, the brutal murder of a mother and a child and the killing of a nine year old girl this week have left Britain wondering how to protect its children.
On Sunday, nine year old Jade Matthews persuaded her mother to let her go out to play with friends in Bootle, Liverpool. In a case that tragically echoes the murder of toddler James Bulger, who was killed by two 10 year old boys in 1993, Jade's battered body was found several hours later on a railway line.
In an emotional plea, her mother, Mrs Denise Matthews, urged parents to ask their children if they were the "monster" that killed her daughter.
Just a day later in Wolverhampton and only four months after the Dunblane massacre, a man wielding a 2ft long machete burst into St Luke's infant's school where the children were having an end of term teddy bears' picnic and attacked a three year old boy and two four year old girls, slashing their faces and scalps. Four adults were also injured.
Twenty four hours later, on Tuesday afternoon in Kent, Mrs Lin Russell collected her two daughters, Megan (6), and Josephine (9) from a swimming gala. Because of the sunny weather they decided to walk home through a wood and across some cornfields.
Police officers who later discovered the battered bodies of Mrs Russell and Megan described the scene as "bloody." Although Josephine had survived the "horrific" attack, she had suffered "horrendous" head injuries and is now under police protection in hospital.
"All I can say about this tragic event is that the attack was frenzied. It is the work of somebody clearly deranged. I could not possibly speculate on his motives who knows the human mind when it reaches such a state? It was utterly frenzied," said Detective Chief Inspector, David Stevens, who is leading the murder inquiry.
As the British tabloids, psychiatrists and government officials debated how to ensure that the nation's children can play and be educated without fear, there seems no obvious solution. A ban on horror videos? Security guards outside every school? A curfew to ensure children can't play outside?
Even the Sign newspaper, which never seems to be lost for words for dealing with these "horrors," could only suggest that the lottery money should be used to "protect our kids."