String quartet sacks violinist after child porn trial

The Silo String Quartet has dismissed violinist Aaron Barnden, 43, after he pleaded guilty in an Australian court to producing and possessing child pornography.

Other members of the quartet were caught completely unawares by the case and are stunned by its revelations about a colleague they thought they knew extremely well. Sentencing has yet to be pronounced.

The quartet’s founder, Caerwen Martin, isssued the following dignified statement.

SiloSQ is my life’s work but behind this there is a deeper purpose that drives my core ethics and strongly influences how I am in the world. This is to make the community a safer place for children so that they may grow to be adults without experiencing the horror of child abuse.

Child abuse, paedophillia, and the pornography rings that feed these behaviours destroy lives from the ground up. I know this as a truth. Child abuse is a product of a broken society and as caring adults, we have a duty to fix this in any way we can.

In my life I have made painful sacrifices to uphold this belief and today I am called upon to do so again. With a heavy heart I release Aaron Barnden from the SiloSQ family. We will not be working with him again.

Thank you for all of the messages of support I have received from people who know of my close personal and professional ties with Aaron and understand how hard it is for me to break a loyalty. I am unable to reconcile his admission of guilt with my core values and purpose in life.

Please understand that members of the Silo family are deeply hurt by this revelation of which we knew nothing about until yesterday through the press. We deeply value your support and love, but also your sensitivity to our varying needs for privacy at this time. The emotions we are experiencing are painful and complex but the sadness I feel at releasing a friend is overwhelming. I know that many of you are grappling with this as well.

Thank you for your understanding.