Call to ban molester's text book

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A woman molested by her stepfather as a child is calling for his books to be banned from sale.

Antoinette Lyons, 33, from Bourn, Cambridgeshire, was one of the victims of paedophile music tutor Brian Davey who was jailed for 13 years in 2006.

She claims he wrote the recorder-playing guides to "get to children".

Now she is calling on a Manchester-based company to stop distributing Davey's books.

Teacher Mrs Lyons said: "Brian Davey wrote fantastic music books but in my opinion they were written with one aim - to get to children, which is why I find it so hard to accept they are still used with children."

Mrs Lyons, who has waived her right to anonymity as a sex offence victim, wants Music Exchange to stop handling Davey's titles, including two dedicated to her two eldest children.

"As far as I know, this company is the only distributor of these books," she said.

It was my worst nightmare Antoinette Lyons

"They say they've got a contract with a publisher. I say they've got a contract with a paedophile.

"It upsets me so much that they're dedicated to my children and I think it's totally inappropriate to use them in schools.

"The bottom line is, are you happy to use a book written for children by a predatory paedophile? I don't think that's morally acceptable and there are equally good alternatives."

Gerald Burns, a director of Music Exchange, said a sticker has been placed in each unsold copy to cover the names of Mrs Lyons' children.

"You can't see through this sticker and once it's on, it's on - if you remove it, you rip the paper," he said.

"We weren't aware the books contained the names of Mrs Lyons' children but, when told, we were happy to cover them.

"When we did this deal many years ago, we didn't know anything about this court case. If someone had come to us and said 'I'm going to get banged up for 13 years, do you want to do my book?', the answer would've probably been 'no'."

Escaped prosecution

Now happily married with three children, it was 20 years before Mrs Lyons felt able to talk openly about the horrors of the childhood abuse she suffered at Davey's hands.

It started when Davey, who taught in the Thames Valley, Cambridgeshire and London areas, was her music teacher and continued when he became her stepfather. She said: "It was my worst nightmare. I have never forgotten anything. Unfortunately for me, I have always remembered it as it was."

Davey, who most recently lived in Milton, near Cambridge, was first arrested in 1987. Despite numerous allegations over the next two decades, he escaped prosecution until two of his victims went to the police in 2003.