INTRUSION
SIR,—May I draw attention to yet another case of intrusion by the press? In the Sunday Express of October 15, there was an article by Mr. Llew Gardner, one of a series called 'Where arc they now?' which sets out 'to bring you news of the people who once made headlines.' The subject of Mr. Gardner's article was a poultry farmer in Suffolk, who is, Mr. Gardner tells us, willing to talk of anything but the past. Despite the reluctance of his subject, however, Mr. Gardner insisted on an interview, and recalls in elaborate detail the tragic past of a priest who was unfrocked for deserting his wife and eloping with a married woman in 1955. The 'other woman' has, we learn, since died, and the man concerned has built some sort of life for himself at an address Mr. Gardner is careful to give. What possible point can there be in bringing further pain not only to this man but also to his wife and daughters by repeating the details and using photographs, beyond titillating the pharisaism of Sunday Express readers?
Mr. Gardner's impudence as an interviewer al- most passes belief. Why did the ex-vicar not return to his wife, he wanted to know? Why has he not had a divorce? Does he correspond with his wife? Has he regrets at no longer being a priest? Is ho reconciled to the Church? The ex-priest seems to have exercised a remarkably Christian self-restraint and forborne from punching Mr. Gardner on the jaw.
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