Philip Pickett sentenced to 11 years imprisonment

[Serial_Apologist]

I don't agree; it's part of a culture that allowed the much more serious things to happen.

[Bryn]

The 'revelations' re. the Muggerishi can surely come as no surprise to those who were paying attention at the time. It was pretty much an open secret. If anything, the tacit acceptance his behaviour by those who lauded him as a moral paragon was even more objectionable than the behaviour itself.

[gurnemanz]

I lived through the 50s as a child and the 60s as a teenager and we were constantly hearing vague rumours about "dirty old men". Luckily for me, I never found out exactly what they got up to but it seems that these rumours, hushed up by those with the power to do so, seem to have been to a large extent accurate. My father wanted me to be in the church choir aged about 8, but I had heard stuff around the street about the curate who ran it and refused to be involved. When he came to our house to talk about it, I locked myself in the toilet.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

the journalism is taken from a history of the BBC
Pinkoes and Traitors: The BBC and the nation 1974-1987

During the Margaret Thatcher years, Britain experienced mass unemployment, trade union strikes, bloody war in Northern Ireland and the Falklands, and an existential threat to its public service broadcaster, the BBC. Pounded by a coherent free market argument, the BBC had to justify its right to the Licence Fee and its independent place in the 'unwritten' British constitution. It did so by producing memorable programmes for the whole British public (not just for the groups that advertisers liked), bolstered by a surprising amount of help from elements of the Conservative government (although not from Thatcher). Drawing on previously unseen state and BBC papers, many released specifically for this dramatic and revealing account, as well as a compelling range of interviewees, Jean Seaton examines the turbulent controversies (stirred up by programmes such as Maggie's Militant Tendency) and the magnificent triumphs (such as Life on Earth and Morecambe and Wise) of an institution that Britain loved and hated, and in many ways is still defined by.

the BBC is still conducting its own inquiries into the Saville activities and its own culture in much the same period as the Pickett events ...

the observations on Wheldon and Muggeridge are from interviews by the author with women who worked in the BBC in that period ... my point in referencing the article was not scurrilous gossip but the extent to which sexual exploitation was an unexceptional feature of life ... and while every one knew, as they say about Saville, no one said ... well they are doing so now

from my own and colleagues experience in industry and commerce outside music, media and the arts, i know that such behaviour was common and not talked about, i saw my wife being groped by a 'middle manager' back in the 70s in a highly regarded shipping company, and i know the casting couch was not confined to the entertainments industries, colleagues from banking have reported similar exploitation of women by senior managers - sexual favours for employment, pay and promotion .... every one knew and no one said much at all

as a school governor i had for a while responsibility for overseeing child protection ... the extent of sexual exploitation was frightening, the police, probation officers, social workers all knew, but practised a kind of omerta .... this is now blown away by the events in Rotherham and other places .... as well as the disclosures of exploitation in care homes and the new Inquiry .... none of it talked about, but always known ...

i have a particular concern to avoid the hysteria of the tabloids, especially Brooks and her collusion with Cameron in the Baby P case .... and abominate the mob of baying hyenas and outrage that Brooks created

the culture of every one knows but no one talks is precisely what enabled the predators to prevail for so long after their misdeeds but to my mind we should talk about more than predators misdeeds, we should talk about our silences and embarrassments, our knowing gossip, our refusal to call a halt

the sexual and physical abuse of children and young adults, the physical abuse of aged adults, is far more commonplace than we care to admit and the issues involved are of great importance ... i am far more concerned that hundreds of presumably responsible individuals said and did nothing than the peccadillo of middle aged middle class men of whatever standing [not quite the bystander effect but close]

[richardfinegold]

This whole thread saddens me. I knew nothing of Maurice Gendron's issues until I saw the reference here and googled it. Gendron's recording of the Dvorak Concerto with Haitink was my introduction to the work and still my favorite; now I won't be able to listen to it in the same way. I also have Pickett recordings.

[Petrushka]

Richardfinegold's post prompts me to ask a couple of questions:

1) Was the issue of sexual abuse an accepted part of 1970s culture in the USA and Europe or was it confined to the UK?

2) Will all of you who own Pickett's records be binning them forthwith?

[pastoralguy]

2) Will all of you who own Pickett's records be binning them forthwith?

Probably not but I do remember our local Oxfam having several Robert King discs after his expose.

[Mary Chambers]

I was a teenager in the fifties, as was my brother. We both suffered minor forms of sexual abuse (I suppose it was 'groping') - I from strangers, he at school. The general attitude was that it was regrettable, but not very important. Nobody thought of the police. We thought the perpetrators were (in the incorrect meaning of the word) pathetic.

[jean]

1) Was the issue of sexual abuse an accepted part of 1970s culture in the USA and Europe or was it confined to the UK?

I can't speak about the more serious sexual abuse, but the groping and propositioning was certainly rife in continental Europe when I travelled there alone as a young woman.

[ahinton]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/11425241/Philip-Pickett-Does-elite-music-teaching-leave-pupils-open-to-abuse.html

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

thank you for that link ahinton:

His activities were far from unknown to many musicians, but some felt honour-bound not to report someone who had helped their career (and might hurt it if they stepped out of line), or who they admired so much as a musician.He remained apparently protected for decades, able to act with impunity.

but as i noted above i do not think that the field of classical music is at all unique in this exploitation and should not criticise its unique affliction but regret its commonality in the silence and tacit acceptance of all institutions and elements of society in disregarding sexual and physical abuse

[ahinton]

thank you for that link ahinton:


but as i noted above i do not think that the field of classical music is at all unique in this exploitation and should not criticise its unique affliction but regret its commonality in the silence and tacit acceptance of all institutions and elements of society in disregarding sexual and physical abuse

No, of course it isn't and the author of that piece, Ian Pace, knows that as well as anyone, I'm sure, but the fact nevertheless remains that many people have chosen to go to Specsavers to purchase rose-tinted spectacles that persuade them that the wonderful worlds of professional music making and of the hothouse educational world that precedes it cannot possibly admit of such behaviour; brilliance as a musician is neither an excuse for it nor an inherently exonerative factor from it, as the examples of Pickett, Brewer, King, Gendron and a good many others have already demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt.

[Serial_Apologist]

No, of course it isn't and the author of that piece, Ian Pace, knows that as well as anyone, I'm sure, but the fact nevertheless remains that many people have chosen to go to Specsavers to purchase rose-tinted spectacles that persuade them that the wonderful worlds of professional music making and of the hothouse educational world that precedes it cannot possibly admit of such behaviour; brilliance as a musician is neither an excuse for it nor an inherently exonerative factor from it, as the examples of Pickett, Brewer, King, Gendron and a good many others have already demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt.

Well put.

[Orphical]

Time for a fresh approach?

I wonder if any other reader might share my belief that, while these crimes are often despicable, we, as a society, must take a more enlightened view to the problem of paedophilia in society. It is apparent that this is a bigger 'problem' than hitherto thought and that many many ,mainly men, harbour feelings of a sexual nature about children and teenagers. Of course it is right that those found guilty face prison sentences but how do we address this problem, this 'unhealthy appetite' that a great number of men, and some women, have. Punitive sentences i fear will deter very few. More help, especially to those who have not committed a crime may be one option. I am interested in the thoughts of other board members.

[Serial_Apologist]

I wonder if any other reader might share my belief that, while these crimes are often despicable, we, as a society, must take a more enlightened view to the problem of paedophilia in society. It is apparent that this is a bigger 'problem' than hitherto thought and that many many ,mainly men, harbour feelings of a sexual nature about children and teenagers. Of course it is right that those found guilty face prison sentences but how do we address this problem, this 'unhealthy appetite' that a great number of men, and some women, have. Punitive sentences i fear will deter very few. More help, especially to those who have not committed a crime may be one option. I am interested in the thoughts of other board members.

I see two problems.

The emotive character of the subject would seem to be down to the undoubted lifetime consequences of paedophilia on its victims, whether or not the condition is subject to cure, which many professionals in the field as well as perpetrators think impossible.

This presumably places barriers in the way of research into pre-emptivity, namely determining whether the condition is as it were inborn or itself a consequence of childhood sexual abuse because people will question devoting research money.

A commonly, and imv understandably asked question is, why if I am required and able to confine expression of sexual impulses to their expression only in mutually consensual circumstances, or "having sex with the person you love" in Woody Allen's witty phrase, cannot the paedophile do likewise? And the simple answer would appear to be that he or she is not judging the situation from the pov of consent but control, which here assumes a sexual domination character advantageous to the adult. This in turn must contribute to society's judgemental attitute towards paedophiles.

The age of permanent images on-line renders paedophilia evern more pernicious today than in earlier times, if that is possible.