Thirty-six people have contacted the office of the children's commissioner for Wales, Keith Towler, since the north Wales residential homes abuse scandal broke last weekend.
Of these, 22 have spoken of abuse they say they suffered at Bryn Estyn in Wrexham and the network of homes connected to it. Another 14 have told of historic abuse in other settings.
On top of those who have gone to the children's commissioner it is known that a number of others - perhaps dozens more - have contacted politicians and solicitors to report abuse and ask for help.
In an interview with the Guardian, Towler expressed concern that the intense speculation over rumours of McAlpine's involvement, subsequently shown to have been false, meant there was a danger the victims were being forgotten.
The BBC and several dozen Twitter users face the prospect of legal action after McAlpine indicated that he may sue for libel over what he described as "wholly false and seriously defamatory" reports linking him to north Wales child abuse allegations. McAlpine issued a statement on Friday after days of frenzied speculation in the wake of a BBC Newsnight report last Friday.
The children's commissioner urged the media to be more measured in its coverage. "It's been a bit of a frenzy," he said. "It's understandable that the level of interest is so high given the Jimmy Savile revelations."
However, he said the media needed to recognise their "public interest responsibility". "While we're all searching for the truth, we so need the Keith Bristow and Mrs Justice [Wendy] Macur investigations do be able to do their work." Bristow will head the police inquiry into abuse while Macur examines the previous public inquiry, headed by Sir Ronald Waterhouse.
Comment: Translation: "public interest responsibility" is code for "cover up the truth".
"If we're going to get to the bottom of this fully, we don't need any actions that will undermine a witness's statement," said Towler.
He also emphasised the importance of reassuring young people who are currently living in residential homes or other care settings and are likely to be frightened by the allegations that have been surfacing.
Towler said it had been "all hands to the pumps" this week as people contacted him to report abuse they had suffered.
He said: "These people are approaching me because they don't yet want to go to the police or the authorities." Most simply wanted to be listened to, he said. "They want to have their voices heard, they want people to understand what happened to them." He said what happened in the 1970s and 1980s in north Wales was a consequence of children and young people not being listened to.
The children's commissioner said the victims' memories were "as clear as if it happened yesterday". "We say it's historical [abuse] but actually it's alive. This is not an archaeological dig, we're talking to people for whom this is terribly alive. People are incredibly emotional - we've had tears, anger, relief.
"They're saying, I've waited 30 years to have this opportunity. I've also had conversations with people going through that emotion but handling that through humour, finding release through humour and asking me if it's inappropriate to have that response. Of course it's not."
Victims have continued to tell tales to the media of abuse, beatings and torture at the homes. One described to the Guardian being regularly whipped with a thin stick while he was naked in the showers at Bryn Estyn.
Another told how staff would fondle the private parts of adolescent boys. Both said they did not even think of this as sexual abuse at the time. "That was normal life to us, it was just how it was," said one of the men.
"I was beaten up, tortured, they beat you up bad," he said. The victim, who asked not to be named, had been in and out of jail after leaving Bryn Estyn. He now keeps out of trouble by staying at home. "I haven't been out for 10 years."
Towler said it was important to consider how these sorts of stories would affect children and young people today.
"If you're a young person in care now picking all this up think what it must be like for them.
"Imagine what it must be to be in a foster placement or residential care at the moment - to pick up through the ether what is going on and wonder if where you are is safe."
Children who have nothing to do with Bryn Estyn have also contacted Towler wanting to speak about what had gone on there.
One teenage boy told him that he had been struck by the diamond shaped windows above the front door of the home and said it appeared to him that the house was looking at him. "He said it should be knocked down. I hadn't thought about that," said Towler.
He has met the Welsh first minister, Carwyn Jones, and the secretary of state for Wales, David Jones, and believes the Welsh and UK governments have a "clear passion" to get to the truth, and that the investigations would go "wherever" they needed to go. He added that he could not say if the information he and his staff were receiving amounted to fresh allegations.
The children's commissioner said he could not say if the inquiry led by the late Sir Ronald Waterhouse was a cover-up, as many have claimed. He said: "My personal memory of Sir Ronald is a very fond one. I have no idea what pressures he was under."
He said it was an "irony" that one of the consequences of the Waterhouse report was the creation of the post of children's commissioner - and that he was now hearing reports from some victims who feel they were not listened to during the Waterhouse process.
Towler said he was desperate to answer the cover-up question.
"To get to the bottom of all of this I need to be able to answer the question. I will be the children's commissioner until the end of February 2015, when my term runs out. I'd love to be in a position to answer that question in my term."
Hollie Greig.