Thanks for the reminder MickG and so sorry to hear about your niece being assaulted. Good to know he's been prosecuted. Was this man known to your family? The majority of assaults are family members, friends/neighbors or acquaintances. More rare are the complete stranger assaults.

Telling is very important but adults also need to discuss inappropriate touch and most importantly empower them, so they can say no. Naturally we don't want to scare or make them paranoid but they should know this could happen. I'm sure there's some great people out there, but as parents we need to pay attention to people who seem to take intense interest in our kids. Familiar predators work hard to gain the trust of parents and the child, with grooming long before the act happens. Chances are a familiar predator won't bother with a confident child - one who knows they can say no and tell.