[Skygeek]

Let's clear up a cultural UK v US thing. Here lawyers tend to be more low key and circumspect with opinions; we don't have a self promotion culture - you'd rarely if ever see a legal ad with a qualified legal person fronting it touting for business - a staple of US local TV.

As a result of the culture,  lawyers are less "good tv"  as unlike their US counterparts they're not self promoting with TV friendly sound bites to get talking head bookings and thus more trade.

UK law is also more complex than US in what can be said about allegations,  plus privacy rights and defamation law is stronger here.

In this case we have a complainant who's not the 'victim', a very carefully worded story that doesn't actually claim sexual pictures were solicited of a minor when they were one, the use of the phase 'child' is in context of the parent not the legal age of the supposed 'victim', and now the outright denial of the story by the 'victim'; also now the fact the police are not investigating.

Thus the story is 25% dry legal facts and 75% about the PR issues.   In this case Sky News has it right

Exactly - thank you, Stockland. 

Many of the people I spoke to yesterday simply said not enough cold hard facts were known to make them comfortable with providing sound analysis.

Commendable restraint from which certain people would do well to learn.