Everyone tries to paper over the sexual abuse – I doubt if his contact with a homosexual has been of much significance to him this time, says one report – but officially, at least, the experience changes everything. It’s as if, suddenly, Peter is visible. His life turns into paper, a correspondence between police, courts, government departments, welfare agencies, hospitals, shelters and his father. Through these Peter is traced in outline, in euphemism, in the coy language of officialdom. He is neglected, or in moral danger, he is placed on probation and threatened with a training school. He absconds and is apprehended, again and again and again, and told finally that, if he breaches one time too many, he will be committed to the care of the Minister.

Only one document hints at the real child behind the words, his innocence, his fear, his misery – Peter was vulnerable to paedophiles at the time, it says, because he was on the run, in need of shelter, a timid, suggestible boy lacking in self-assertion. But he is nonetheless cheerful, pleasant and respectful. The language of his official life ducks and weaves as effectively as Peter does around his own pain.