Behind the anger and the blame, was the fear. … ‘The women crèche workers were absolutely petrified,’ Ellis’s solicitor Chris Knight told me. ‘It was like a police state thing closing in. They were all under suspicion. Enquiries were being made of friends and neighbours. It was a terrifying time for everyone on the periphery who felt they could be drawn into the vortex.’

Lynley Hood, A City Possessed, loc. 2237