Les Merton

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Les Merton is a convicted child-abuser from Medlyn Moor, Cornwall, England, UK, subsequently living in Redruth before his 2015 conviction.{{cite web|title=Cornwall Writers – Poetry inspired by the Cornish landscape|url=http://www.geniusloci.co.uk/Poetry4.htm|publisher=Genius Loci Creative Network|accessdate=2011-06-17|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110204140434/http://www.geniusloci.co.uk/Poetry4.htm|archivedate=2011-02-04}} 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.{{cite web|url=http://www.theemporiumredruth.co.uk/info2.cfm?info_id=124988|title=Profile of Les Merton|publisher=The Emporium Redruth|accessdate=2011-06-17|url-status=dead|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20120325193809/http://www.theemporiumredruth.co.uk/info2.cfm?info_id=124988|archivedate=2012-03-25}}

In 2002 he founded Poetry Cornwall/Bardhonyeth Kernow,{{cite web| title = Poetry Cornwall – Bardhonyeth Kernow|url=http://www.poetrycornwall.freeservers.com/|publisher=Poetry Cornwall – Bardhonyeth Kernow|accessdate=2011-06-17}} now defunct. In the same year his poem "Gud News" won the Cornish Gorsedd,{{cite book|title=Chatter of Choughs: an anthology celebrating the return of Cornwall's legendary bird|year=2005|publisher=Hypatia Trust|location=Penzance|isbn=978-1-872229-49-2|pages=xxvi, 43–45|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aMD9mQpLGUcC}} 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".{{cite book|last=Kent|first=Alan|authorlink=Alan M. Kent|title="Bringin' the Dunkey Down from the Carn:" Cornu-English in Context 1549–2005, a provisional analysis|year=2006|publisher=Universitäts-Verlag Potsdam|location=Potsdam|isbn=3-939469-06-8|page=27|url=http://opus.kobv.de/ubp/volltexte/2010/4090/pdf/CelticEnglishesIV.pdf}} His bardic name was Map Hallow (Son of the Moors), however since his conviction he has been removed from the Bardic Roll.{{Cite web |title=Bardic Roll |url=https://gorsedhkernow.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Bardic-Roll-Alphabetic-by-Bardic-Name-May-2021.pdf |access-date=12 March 2024 |website=Gorsedh Kernow}}

His guide to the Cornish dialect entitled Oall Rite Me Ansum?: a salute to Cornish Dialect was published in 2003.{{cite book|last=Merton|first=Les|title=Oall Rite Me Ansum?: a salute to the Cornish Dialect|year=2003|publisher=Countryside Books|location=UK|isbn=1-85306-814-4|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NOnyNwAACAAJ}}

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-30834579|title='Rasputin research' led bard les Merton to child porn|work=BBC News|date=15 January 2015}}

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cornwall-30857031|title=Cornish bard les Merton guilty of child sex abuse|work=BBC News|date=16 January 2015}}