OUTSIDE the unreal worlds of science fiction, horror films or fantasy role play, there are not many ways in which you can become transformed into your worst possible nightmare - changed into the very being which you most actively detest and despise.

It can happen and it does happen - every day. It happened to me.

Even illness or a paralysing accident - truly awful though that prospect would be - could not so completely have achieved this Jekyll and Hyde change. Some staunch people can be heroic in illness and are rightly admired for this strength.

There was no shred of possible admiration left - least of all in me for what I was almost changed into.

As an experienced professional involved in the care and education of young people for over 15 years, I was falsely accused of abuse. I have never undergone a more sickening transition.

Once, I had the task of caring for a young woman of 16 who was going mad before my eyes over a three-day period while we as caring adults struggled to get the mental health services involved.

I, with a succession of other staff, sat with her for many, many hours during those days and nights as she told us, over and over again in her mania, about every tiny fact of the abortion she had suffered and of the abuser who had made her pregnant and in lurid, graphic, sickening and repeated detail just what, when and how many times he had done things to her.

She told us over and over for hours.

The vast majority of men, especially those with children, will know exactly what I would have loved to do if I could have met the animal responsible for that. It took me a very long time to manage my anger in an adult way.

And here I was - accused of being a child abuser.

Over the next two years I was arrested, questioned for seven hours, charged with four offences of assault, fingerprinted, photographed and a DNA sample taken. I appeared in a magistrates court and had my name and address published as an alleged child abuser.

I eventually appeared in front of a Crown Court where the jury returned a unanimous verdict of not guilty, in a very short time. Costs were awarded against the Crown and Northumbria Police's child abuse investigation had again been proved woefully wrong in their prosecution.

Not one of the complaints was made as a result of ex-clients going to the police. All were as a result of the police searching for former clients and inviting them to make allegations and complaints - sometimes on several occasions.

The temptation was to hide - to account for my not being at work through illness or redundancy.

I am so pleased I did not choose that option. I told everyone. I made no secret of the fact and gradually through friends and friends of friends, people spread all over the country knew.

The feedback was startling - this is happening everywhere.

The effect of this on my family can be imagined - no one in my, or my wife's, family has ever had a police record.

My children, nephews and nieces are all sound, reasonable and balanced young people - all their friends knew because it was in the papers on more than one occasion.

They had to bear this too - which increased my burden. I knew I had not assaulted anyone and the temptation was to say to everyone - "it's NOT abuse you know - not the way it sounds".

Months became years and the pressure grew with the nearing of the trial date. If I lost I would face prison, no job, unemployable, having to sell the house, can't meet a mortgage, I would be put on the abuse register?

All for restraining a drunken abusing bully!

Having won, the release of the pressure was like a rebirth. Will I go back to working with children again? Never - the risks are too high. Nor will any of my family or their children.

I worked closely with the police on a daily basis in the course of my work. Will I ever help them again? Never - I've seen them too close up!

My values have changed utterly. The support of family, friends and former colleagues was breathtaking and humbling.

I still don't know if I have a job. The local authority will now try me again on the level of employment law.

I don't know if I will ever be able to be employed again - the police will send the evidence statements to my employer who will refer to "allegations" even though I was found to be innocent.

I am marked for life.