It deals fictionally with a secret that Mr. Irving has carried around for years: in 1953, when he was 11, an older woman sexually abused him.

If the woman is abusing laxatives, a gradually reduction regime should be negotiated.

She declined to comment on specific cases, but "said it's not uncommon for women to change their stories", indicating also that "on occasion, women do abuse men."

He had no special feelings about ghosts and he was slightly wary of this particular one, but he did not like to see any woman abused.

I have learned to be ashamed that women can so abuse their power.

Four Jewish women abused, excoriated and perhaps assaulted her, but whether they acted out of animosity or an instinct for self-preservation has never been clear.

Did more men than women abuse children, or was it the other way around?

Over the last three months, a woman who supervised a school bus carrying handicapped children in Brooklyn sexually abused seven of the students repeatedly, the police charged yesterday.

William Purdy, the chief assistant Passaic County prosecutor, said today that detectives found no evidence that the young woman had neglected or abused the baby previously.