Child sex abuse conductor jailed and Conductor jailed for abusing boys - the latter mentions that
(Judge Hezlett Colgan said) while he would have to register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, the "radical change" in King's life since the offences - marriage and parenthood - meant he did not feel it necessary to ban him from working with children in the future.which strikes me as perverse. I can see an argument for not banning someone who committed offences only as a youngster themselves, or (logically, not morally) if the offences were only committed away from any sort of work environment.
There have been quite a few comments on the various opera newsgroups. I know the story has been around since last summer, but to be honest, I didn't think it would lead to a conviction - partly because sexual assault cases tend to have a very low conviction rate anyway, and this is a case going back several years, (although generally assaults on boys are seen as exponentially worse than assaults on girls), and because it is not unusual for false accusations to be made against prominent people.
So it feels rather unpleasant to me. I have a number of Kings Consort CDs and have attended a number of their concerts; I am lavish with praise. But I don't know whether I could ever listen to those CDs again with quite the same. The TKC website says nothing - as yet - but does carry a long list of CDs that seem very desirable. Or do they? I don't know.
And the Torygraph have managed to surpass themselves in asinine offensive stupidity
I really do wish justice had not been done...for me...his golden recordings have put him beyond reproach.He was also about the only person in Classical Music who, when he opened his mouth, could actually be funny. He was the supreme raconteur and always had the audiences in the palm of his hand.
Mind you, that's what these types actually believe - being a Good Chap who plays the Game makes one above the masses for whom hanging and birching is too good, what oh. Gosh, perhaps there were, you know, common people on the jury. Wouldn't have been allowed in my day.
