Roy Harper - Forbidden Fruit?

[Poacher]

Much as I admire Roy, the news that he's up in court in Hereford next Monday worries me in light of the sleeve notes for his Valentine LP track Forbidden Fruit: "Many a man was hung for picking the fruit from the tree, disgusting. I would like to dedicate this to one of my favourite people, Lewis Caroll, who obviously had similar fantasies to my own. Sing it smiling."
That may come back to bite him! The lyrics certainly won't help, either, and I can't help wondering if the prosecution rests largely on those, rather than verifiable evidence of under-age sex.

 

[ScotiaLass]

Oh dear...

 

[MontyVeda]

I wonder how many of these cases are just former groupies looking for some easy money rather than 'justice'.

 

[ColinJ]

I wonder how many of these cases are just former groupies looking for some easy money rather than 'justice'.

I think 12 is a bit young to be called a groupie ...!

 

[vernon]

I think 12 is a bit young to be called a groupie ...!

Until the case is heard and proven they remain allegations and not facts.

 

[ColinJ]

Until the case is heard and proven they remain allegations and not facts.

True.

I'm not commenting on whether or not Roy Harper is guilty. I'm just saying that a 12 year old in this or any other case should not be referred to as 'a groupie'. (I think groupies are people above the age of consent who hang about with stars.)

 

[vernon]

True.

I'm not commenting on whether or not Roy Harper is guilty. I'm just saying that a 12 year old in this or any other case should not be referred to as 'a groupie'. (I think groupies are people above the age of consent who hang about with stars.)

There are some precocious twelve year olds about - thankfully not too many. I've witnessed the fallout from their inappropriate relationships. There are no winners in the subsequent legal actions.

 

[ColinJ]

There are some precocious twelve year olds about - thankfully not too many. I've witnessed the fallout from their inappropriate relationships. There are no winners in the subsequent legal actions.

I'm not saying that there are not but even if a well-endowed 12 year old made it very obvious that she (or he) were desperate to leap into bed with you, a hasty retreat would be the appropriate response!

2 mid-teenage girls started trying it on with me on a train back from Manchester once. I don't what made me say it, but I told them that I was an off-duty police officer and that they would get into trouble if they carried on like that. One said to the other that I looked as if I had a big truncheon, and the other started howling with laughter, looked me in the eye and said "Ooh, you can get me into trouble with your big truncheon any day of the week!" at which point I decided that discretion was the better part of valour and fled to the far end of the train!

 

[MontyVeda]

...
(I think groupies are people above the age of consent who hang about with stars.)

not necessarily.

 

[ColinJ]

not necessarily.

I am saying that they may behave like groupies but they are too young to consent to being groupies, therefore they are only children playing at being groupies. They may want to do it, they may look older than they are, but that isn't the point. The point is that we should offer them the protection they deserve by not thinking of them that way, or treating them that way.