What Roy Harper wrote or sang in a song has no bearing on whether or not he is guilty of child abuse. However revolting or creepy the song's lyrics might be.

I don't think anyone here has said that have they? I hope not. As far as I was concerned his career was over when I heard that song in '74 when I was 13 myself and found it deeply unacceptable even by my somewhat feral sexual standards of the time (I even skipped a track on Wish You Were Here because he sang on it; now I'm happy that I have the 'Experience' edition where I can hear Roger Waters' vocal as is only right and proper - I like my Floyd as a hermetically sealed gang o' 4, Dick Parry notwithstanding...) His sleeve note and justification in the MM interview make it all the more noxious but its bearing on the present sensation is coincidental & unfortunate despite his claims that Forbidden Fruit is '...an absolute admission...'.

Personally, I'd make it a law that the press could only report on such cases after the conviction. If there is no conviction, then there is no story - simples! If he is found innocent you can bet the retraction won't meet with Hacked Off's standards. Even if the press retracted on the front page, it's not going to help restore his reputation - but then again neither's Forbidden Fruit and its related commentaries.

Thing is though, if he was truly guilty of such crimes, would he have made so public a statement about them? I'd like to think not, but then again Jimmy Savile was goosing and groping young girls (incuding a Nolan!) in full view of the nation on TOTP with the alleged approval of everyone in the BBC, so who can say?