Because almost 50% of people are of below median intelligence

For possibly the first and last time, here's some selections from an article in the Daily Mail:

Many parents wrongly fear that scores of children are murdered every year and perceive paedophiles as "slimy and lonely", a survey reveals.
Figures found that parents thought 171 children were killed each year after being abducted by strangers, 28 times more than the actual number of six murders, an average figure which has stood since 1972, the study said.

But a further 30% said that child molesters were untidy, slimy, anxious, lonely and always looking at kids, research for ITV1's Tonight with Trevor McDonald programme revealed.

No word from the Mail as to why peopel might believe this, of course, but then it's free to say what it wants as it's obvious that no paedophile has ever even looked at the Mail. At least, I assume their research shows that because otherwise their regular habit of printing pictures of young girls along with discussions of how they're 'blooming nicely' would be at least hypocritical and at worst extremely dangerous.

More on this from Green Fairy and Chris Brooke.