that any sexual contact between an adult and a child is wrong and can not be justified in any possible way. It is always wrong. And it is wrong for other adults to cover it up.

And then we have the Penn State scandal, the Boy Scouts, Jeffrey Epstein, P Diddy, and entire modern trade in human beings. In each of those examples hundreds to thousands of other adults had to have known what was going on and said nothing, did nothing. Human beings rationalize heinous acts all of the time. As a species, we are actually quite good at it. That's not a justification, but an explanation. And you can't continue punishing the innocent forever to discourage future evil.