No words can capture the horror. But every day in England between ten and 20 mothers and fathers will experience the nightmare of the death of a child.

Of the 6,000 children who die this year, most will have been the victims of illness. About a third will have been the casualties of accidents. Fewer than 100 will have been murdered – most likely by their parents. A handful will have been killed by other children.

The case of 11-year-old Rhys Jones, the boy shot dead in Liverpool last week, hit the front pages because it is so rare, because it comes after eight other shootings of children in England this year, and because it happened in a suburb of a city where another notorious crime was committed in 1993 – the murder of two-year-old Jamie Bulger.

The circumstances of Jamie's death were very different. He was shopping with his mother, when he was led away by two 10-year-olds who savagely attac