The old adage No Good Deed Goes Unpunished is particularly sad when it begins to eliminate the proper action:

A BRICKLAYER who passed a toddler walking alone in a village shortly before her fatal fall into a pond said yesterday he did not stop to help in case people thought he was trying to abduct her.

Clive Peachey, from Cornwall, told an inquest jury in Stratford-upon-Avon that he had passed two-year-old girl, Abby Rae, in his van shortly after 10am on 28 November, 2002.

This was just moments after the toddler disappeared from the Ready Teddy Go nursery in the Warwickshire village of Lower Brailes, according to staff.

In his own words:

I kept thinking I should go back. The reason I didn't go back was because I thought people might think I was trying to abduct her.

As a parent, the story just makes me sick, but his excuse is a legitimate one. If he had grabbed the girl to get her to safety and the police or even the daycare workers looking for her saw him with the girl, he would be in serious trouble. Nothing like a charge of kidnapping a young girl (even if never convicted) to foul up just about every aspect of your life.

There are no winners in a story like this. No winners at all.