come to the defence of Government.

Dr. Peter Perinchief said it was important not to politicise an investigation into possible child abuse.

"It is not right to browbeat the Government for failing to act on this,'' Dr.

Perinchief told The Royal Gazette . "I think they've acted quite appropriately within the guidelines of the law.

"In a free society, you can't go in like gangbusters with six guns blazing accusing people of doing something,'' he said.

Both the Ministry of Health and Social Services and the Police have investigated the nursery and both probes are continuing.

There are legal and other difficulties attached to investigating suspected abuse involving children two or three years old.

If there was no physical evidence of abuse, experts had to draw conclusions from the children's behaviour, Dr. Perinchief said.

"Our legal system is based upon cause and effect relationships,'' he said.

"It's based on logic. It gets difficult to use the usual rules of evidence when you're talking about the behaviour of a child.

"The courts are going to have to contend with this problem, as they have in other jurisdictions.'' Dr. Perinchief trained under child abuse expert Dr. Henry Kempe at the University of Colorado.