Les Merton

Les Merton is a convicted child-abuser from Medlyn Moor, Cornwall, England, UK, subsequently living in Redruth before his 2015 conviction.^[1] Educated at Halwin School, and employed in various ways in his life, he has written in a range of genres including humour and Cornish dialect.^[2]

In 2002 he founded Poetry Cornwall/Bardhonyeth Kernow,^[3] now defunct. In the same year his poem "Gud News" won the Cornish Gorsedd,^[4] and in 2004 he was made a bard of that organisation for his services to Cornish literature,^[2] which have been described as "new investigations of Cornish experience".^[5] His bardic name was Map Hallow (Son of the Moors),^[2] however since his conviction he has been removed from the Bardic Roll.^[6] His guide to the Cornish dialect entitled Oall Rite Me Ansum?: a salute to Cornish Dialect was published in 2003.^[1][7]

In 2005 Merton accepted a police caution for entering his credit card details into a website hosting indecent images of children, but had claimed that this was a mistake which happened whilst carrying out research into the Russian mystic, Rasputin.^[8]

In January 2015, Merton was found guilty and jailed for 13 years for child sex abuse which was carried out on girls as young as seven and over a period of over 20 years.^[9]