Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice issue statement on paedophile associate
mainThe pair have been concerned by a number of Times reports about Alan Doggett, an alleged member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) who was their early mentor at school. Doggett committed suicide in 1978 after being accused of indecent assault on a pupil ten years earlier. Here’s the Lloyd Webber-Rice statement:
photo (c) The Times
‘Alan Doggett was the music master at Westminster Under School, where he taught Andrew’s younger brother Julian. He became a friend of the Lloyd Webber family when Andrew was twelve.
‘Doggett asked Andrew in 1967 whether he and Tim would write an end of term concert piece for the preparatory school Colet Court. The consequence was “Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat”.
‘Doggett had a track record of success with schools music. His choir had recorded previously the Daniel Jazz and the Jonah Man Jazz which were considered successes in the schools music field in the mid 1960s.
‘At the time of his death we had not seen him for some time. His suicide in 1978 and the fresh allegations that were made around that time came as a complete shock to us.
‘Neither of us had ever heard of the Paedophile Information Exchange until very recently and obviously had no idea that Alan Doggett was connected with it or that he could be a danger to children.’
Here we go again… Why bring up allegations from almost 40 years ago especially when the man is dead. What is the point? What is accomplished by this? Why NOW????? It seems we not only have the Victimhood of America but the Victimhood of the WORLD. Alan Dogget was judged by the Ultimate Judge 36 years ago. Each of us will face that Ultimate Judge. Let the one among us who is without sin cast the first stone as that Judge advised us. For the 10000th time this is why we need a worldwide Statute of Limitations. This coming around making accusations 30-40-50+ years later is an obscenity. In the Albany NY area we’ve been treated to the sorry spectacle of a man going to his grave convinced that he had been (at least physically) abused by nuns who may never even have existed. In my era, the word “mercy” was not in the vocabulary of the Sisters of… I’m the sure now infamous Magdalene Sisters were convinced they were doing God’s work–spare the rod, etc., etc. It’s what they knew.
There are monstrous people out there–there always have been. We have a young man from our area who was just finally arrested in Florida for making pornography with kids under 5. I don’t know what makes someone do that. I don’t know if their psychosexual development was arrested at a prepubertal age–as I suspect is the problem w/many Roman priests. But to come around >35 years later & make accusations that go back yet another decade when the person has been dead all these years is OBSCENE.
So now Doggett can simply be labeled a “paedophile associate” minus proof? Convenient that he’s been dead for over thirty-five years, because such a headline, written about a living person who had never been convicted of such a crime, would have certainly resulted in a richly-deserved libel suit. Remind me, should I ever be accused of a criminal offense, to keep Mr. Lebrecht off any jury that might hear my case — his clearly-demonstrated attitude of “guilty until proven innocent” is one that should be kept as far away from the halls of jurisprudence as one could imagine.
As there is another thread dealing with the guilt or innocence or Alan Doggett, I’d like to stick to messrs Rice and Lloyd Webber’s statement:
It sticks to what they know of as fact. Although they do not say so explicitly, it is clear they do not like the idea of children being harmed. They had no idea at the time that Doggett could be involved with the PIE, or had any possible interest in paedophilia. As far as they were both concerned, he was Julian’s former music teacher and a family friend for whom they composed “Joseph and his Amazing Technicolored Dreamcoat”.
If Alan Doggett was a paedophile (and unfortunately the balance of probability suggests this was the case) the associated of Daniel Jazz, Jonah Man Jazz and Joseph with him is extremely unfortunate as many children have gained a great deal of pleasure from performing these works. Mr Doggett can’t defend himself now as he is dead. Messrs Rice and Lloyd Webber wrote Joseph in good faith. This sort of publicity they can do without.
If there are any victims of the late Mr Doggett’s alleged offences alive, they should rest assured that Messrs Rice and Lloyd Webber did not knowingly collude with a paedophile.
As this country does not continue with criminal prosecutions once the defendant is dead, it may not be possible to establish a “beyond reasonable doubt” level of guilt or innocence. One can, however support those who live with the aftermath of abuse whoever the perpertrator is.
The only people I know who defend pedophiles this rigorously are defense attorneys and pedophiles.