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, which have been described as "new investigations of Cornish experience".[5] His bardic name was Map Hallow (Son of the Moors), 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.[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]
. Alan M. Kent. "Bringin' the Dunkey Down from the Carn:" Cornu-English in Context 1549–2005, a provisional analysis. 2006. Universitäts-Verlag Potsdam. Potsdam. 3-939469-06-8. 27.