User talk:Waterden

Roger Took
Nationality	English
Occupation(s)	Art historian, Curator

Roger Took is an art historian, museum curator, author and paedophile who has lived in London, Ireland, and Russia. Throughout his career, he ran several museums in England, is a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society, and a former director of the Barbican Art Gallery. He attended Haileybury College, Sandhurst and the Courtauld Institute. In 1985, Took founded Artangel, an institution within the field of contemporary art. In December 2003, Running with Reindeer: Encounters in Russian Lapland, Roger Took's detailed description of life on Russia's Lapland and Kola Peninsula, was published in hardback. This book was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award. Took was most recently acclaimed as an expert on the mediaeval Russian fur trade. He was arrested in April 2007 for paedophilia-related crimes, and in February 2008 was jailed for a minimum of four and a half years as part of an indeterminate sentence for 17 crimes relating to child abuse.

Career

Artangel

Artangel, which commissions work from international artists raging from sculpture to film, was founded in 1985 by Took as a privately funded initiative. It was taken over by James Lingwood and Michael Morris in 1992.

Running with Reindeer: Encounters in Russian Lapland

Hardback cover

In the 1990s, Roger Took decided to visit and write about Russia's Lapland and Kola Peninsula because there was so little known about the area. He prepared by taking a crash course in Russian and getting some arms training. He studied maps and the history of the area, people and Soviet occupation.

In December 2003, Running with Reindeer: Encounters in Russian Lapland was published in hardback. Written in a travelogue style, Took begins the book detailing the events of his first trip to Murmansk (often referred to as Russia's Lapland) as the first traveler to the area in 70 years, and later details of the interior of the region. He explains the desolation of post-Soviet north villages and the details of everyday life there of both the indigenous and non-indigenous settlers, expressing a "combination of respect and shock at their dismal lifestyle." Breaking the law, Took ventured into restricted areas, often getting caught, in order to give the reader an understanding of this vanishing native culture, its endangered ecosystem, and the dynamics of its cultures.

The Daily Telegraph reviewed the book as an "almost encyclopaedic account of northern travels". A 2004 article in the Canadian Journal of History reviewed it as "quite an extraordinary book", but continued on that "the final sections of the work prove to be ... highly disappointing." The book was shortlisted for the Thomas Cook Travel Book Award in 2004.

Paedophilia case

Took met a wealthy painter, Pat Cleary, in the early 1980s. Seven years his senior and a divorcee, Took was charming, paying "flattering attention to her daughters". The couple married in 1983 and lived in Cleary's affluent Chelsea, London home. The extended family from Clearly's first marriage consisted of a stepson, two stepdaughters and eight step-grandchildren. The wealth he married into helped to facilitate his double life.

In February 2007, in their 25th year of marriage, Roger Took joined his family for a trip to the Dominican Republic. On their way home, one of his stepdaughters, Ann, found a $100 bill in her daughter's luggage. Ann questioned her daughter about where she got it, and was told that Took gave it to her so that he could photograph her. She eventually confessed that she had been sexually abused by Took "for as long as she could remember". Ann alerted the police and a six week investigation was launched, during which Took was unaware that his family knew what had been happening.

Investigation and arrest

Took was arrested at Luton airport in April 2007, following the police investigation during which 742 logs from chat rooms used to boast about a child rape and murder were discovered. Took denied this, saying it was merely a fantasy. Police also recovered 260 images from Took's laptop. 102 of them were graded as "level 5s", which means they contain images of children being penetrated, tortured, or both. When police raided Took’s home, they found a locked case containing a large bundle of photographs of naked young Russian women, believed to be prostitutes, one having sex with Took, and clippings of children’s hair.

Hearing and sentencing

Took was given an indeterminate sentence by Judge Henry Blacksell QC who believed he "posed a danger to all children." He eventually plead guilty to a total of 17 counts, including sexual assault on a child under 13, inciting a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and making and possessing indecent images of children. Judge Blacksell, who had reviewed thousands of pages of evidence, was visibly shocked when he told the court, "It is unrestrained filth, depravity of the worst kind." He was sentenced to nine years and will be eligible for parole after just four-and-a-half. Additionally, he is banned from working with children under the age of 18 for the rest of his life. Roger Took is now appealing his sentence.

Took's charm, social status, academic reputation and credentials served to "cushion him from condemnation". His case received little publicity, and he enjoyed continued support from former colleagues. During sentencing, Judge Blacksell, who expressed that he has no doubt that Took suffers from an illness, took into consideration 23 letters of support and three character witnesses who spoke at the hearing on behalf of five people. He was described as a "gentle, kind, caring man who has enriched the lives of many over many years". Those who spoke were his older half-brother, John Michael Took; the Reverend Adrian Gabb-Jones; and Matteos Los, a schoolfriend from a Greek shipping family.

References

• Metcalf, Charlotte (July 9, 2008). "The Establishment paedophile: how a monster hid in high society". Spectator.co.uk. Retrieved on August 10, 2008.

External links

• Woman's Hour (July 10, 2008). "The damage that living with a paedophile inflicts on a family". BBC Radio 4. Retrieved on August 10, 2008.
• Jenni Murray (July 13, 2008). "Nothing beats a good sex scandal". Guardian.co.uk. Retrieved on August 10, 2008.
• Charlotte Metcalf (September 10, 2008). "Married to an upper-class paedophile: How members of the Establishment refused to accept my husband's depravity". Daily Mail. Retrieved on September 10, 2008.