Ben Taskers Blog

Can the art of a paedophile be appreciated?

05 09 07 - 16:58


The BBC's Website is carrying this intriguing debate.One of the victims of convicted paedophile Brian Davey has forsaken the witness protection in order to request that his works are no longer used. His books on learning the recorder are, apparently, one of the best texts for teaching children. His victim's view is that he used his teaching, and by extension his books, in order to get close to children and commit sex acts with them.

I can completely understand his step-daughters point of view, she has been through a terrible ordeal at the hands of one she thought she could trust. However can we ignore a piece of art (or in this case intellectual work) simply because of the actions of the creator? As the BBC website points out, many other artists have had 'controversial' beliefs or habits in their private lives. Wagner for example was an anti-semite, do you still appreciate his work? Even if you do not appreciate his work, is it his hatred of Jews that fuels this?

I imagine most will answer no, a dislike of the music is likely to be based upon the composition (or perhaps the performance).


Do you discredit the work done by missionaries and priests simply because they are revealed as paedophiles? I think a reasonable person would not, even if they could see an ulterior motive for the good that was done. So why is the case of Brian Davey any different? There are no suggestions of his habits in his books, and it would appear they are useful teaching resources, yet there is clearly a group with their hearts set on banning this literature.


Davey committed a despicable crime, however that side of his personality is not necessarily linked to the element of his personality that created such an effective teaching material. The decision of whether or not to use his materials should be based upon their effectiveness, not upon the crimes that Davey committed.


Many would agree that teaching the next generation is an essential part of everyday life, so why remove this resource from societies schools? If incontrovertible evidence was discovered identifying the inventor of the wheel, and it happened that he was also a paedophile, would society stop using the wheel? I think not.



Some will argue that the wheel is a far more important innovation, but as I have already highlighted, educating the next generation is perhaps our single most important duty. This does of course include protecting them, but I think it highly unlikely that a book on learning to play the recorder will put societies children in danger.


Davey himself should be despised for the crime he has committed, but that should not extend to his works, so long as they are useful. Whilst the good cannot outweigh the bad that he has done, the bad should not be allowed to cancel out the good that he has done.

It is a difficult debate, and their will always be two camps on this issue, however this is just my opinion on the matter and no offence is intended to anyone. I cannot imagine what the victims of such a crime must go through, and Davey certainly deserves to be locked away. However good work should also be appreciated, I still enjoy a good performance of Wagner's work, despite there being aspects of his personality that I disagree with.