“We humans are complex: a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly. We can praise and benefit from the good, condemn the bad and wonder about the ugly. To cast aside the good is to punish ourselves.” A reflective HUGH SELBY looks for hope. 

Some of this article describes the distasteful. It also deals with hope. The focus is the benefits that flow from not throwing out the good with the bad.

We look at what has been meted out to some successful male writers who allegedly behaved inappropriately in sexual matters: as harassers of women, or pedophilic. 

We know little about the causes of pedophilia (meaning a sexual interest in children), little about its actual, as distinct from estimated prevalence in our society, and little about the success or failure of therapies that are intended to control long term this disturbing, frightening conduct.

In this world of ignorance and fear we have chosen to criminalise this conduct in the interests of protecting our children from pedophiles’ depredations.

We might have taken a mental health approach, but that would still entail the forcible, long-term confinement of pedophiles.

Penalising the conduct does not deter offenders, nor does it enhance the prospects of rehabilitation. We lock them away for the protection of our children.

When they are released we put their names on lists that are intended to prevent their being able to molest children.

We don’t want them in our apartment block, our street, our kids’ sports, our local schools, aftercare or libraries, or as the nurses, doctors or dentists who look after our children’s health.

People with pedophilic tendencies are, until there is a proven successful treatment, to be prohibited from contact with children.

Such treatment may be around the corner, or decades away. Meantime we persist with the leper-colony approach: unclean, unclean. 

That’s how we respond to things we don’t yet understand.

Something else that we humans persist with is our inherent, unstoppable desire to look for a reason to label a person or group as inferior to us. 

And we must not overlook the innate desire for vengeance.

What follows illustrates the interweaving of these three traits.

The Dyson Heydon case

Vengeance is part of the human condition. Alfred Hitchcock is said to have remarked: “Revenge is sweet and not fattening.”

Another quotation is: “I will hurt you for this. I don’t know how yet, but give me time. A day will come when you think yourself safe and happy, and suddenly your joy will turn to ashes in your mouth, and you’ll know the debt is paid”, which is attributed to American author George RR Martin in his epic fantasy A Clash of Kings, first published in 1998.

I rather think both those quotes can apply to the 2025 attempts to tear down, for a second time, former High Court Justice Dyson Heydon for his wayward, unwanted approaches to some women.

Heydon was on the High Court from 2003 to 2013. He retired then because he reached the maximum age of 70. His legal career as a barrister, a judge and an academic had been stellar.

Seven years later, in 2020, an investigation found that he had sexually harassed six women who worked at the court when he was a judge there.

In 2022 compensation was paid to some of those women by the federal government. Heydon has always denied the allegations, but apologised for any “inadvertent and unintended” offence. 

In mid-2025 he self-published, at age 82, a lengthy text called “Heydon on Contract (Particular Contracts)”. Not unexpectedly, this was hailed as brilliant. 

He self-published because his previous publisher decided that they didn’t want his work after the court scandal findings of 2020.

As is usual, there were launching celebrations for his new book. People with an interest attended, some of them famous, at least in legal circles. This attracted the vengeful ire of one of those offended until death by his alleged harassing conduct.

In an article on June 28 2025, headed “You laud a disgraced judge? It galls me”, in the Sydney Morning Herald, one of those compensated was critical of his “rehabilitation”.

She wrote that, “his academic work is meticulous. But his conduct was indefensible [it was to give her champagne and ask for a kiss]. His writing may be publishable, but that doesn’t entitle him to public rehabilitation”.

Once upon a not so long ago it was common to brand an adulterer with an A on the forehead, the equivalent to today’s internet searchable list of pedophiles. That didn’t stop the branded person getting on with their life.

But in 2025 a rising star of the legal stage supports lifelong damnation, an exile from public life. Methinks this is the pursuit of a holier-than-thou vengeance. His public disgrace and her being compensated was not enough. She wanted “ashes in his mouth”. 

And that was more important to her than acknowledging that his scholarship should be made known to, and be readily accessible by, any of we less brilliant lawyers (which is most of the legal profession).

Publishing is not about morals

I was bemused by the law publisher’s decision to divorce Dyson Heydon. Just what was the message to book buyers that the publisher wished to convey?

He was not a Harvey Weinstein or a Jimmy Savile – not comparable, not even close. So no broad public risk of the publisher carrying a sordid stain.

His alleged misconduct was not with publisher staff either. So no need to protect staff.

And book buyers were not going to pick up a disease by buying his books.

Put simply, the “cancelling” made no sense, neither on moral grounds nor publishing profitability.

As an author with the same publisher over three decades, I confess to being amused by his unexpected good fortune.

I too was divorced by them, but the property settlement made me smile. 

Legal writers who can self-publish successfully because of their reputation and the topic of their writing are few and far between. Heydon’s academic credentials know no better. Contract law is fundamental to legal practice.

Now he sells his book at his chosen price. Instead of a mere royalty he nets much more per copy sold. That too would irk his “until death do us part” detractors.

Mr Heydon’s situation would be the envy of well-known UK children’s book writer, David Walliams. He was recently dropped by his long-term publisher, HarperCollins, following an internal investigation into his behaviour. There were allegations that Walliams had harassed junior female employees. Walliams says that he was never interviewed and denies the allegations.

The decision by Harper Collins is much easier to understand than the law publisher’s divorce of Heydon.

Whether another publisher will pick up Walliams, or he will take the self-publishing route remains to be seen.

And so, at last, we come back to the topic of our fear-laden response to pedophilic conduct.

Craig Silvey is a successful Australian writer of children’s books. His world collapsed with his arrest this January. The headline was: “Publishers, bookstores pull Craig Silvey’s work in response to child exploitation material charges”.

Until his arrest, his books sold well, were stocked in local libraries and used in schools. Work was underway for a play based on his writing. All of that has been stopped.

Maybe he visited schools and libraries to talk with kids. No more.

However, what’s the connection between his well-liked books and claimed abhorred conduct? Why should his books not be stocked for as long as children enjoy them?

There has been no suggestion that his books include incitement to, or acceptance of pedophilia.

Do all those who love Roald Dahl’s books know that he was an antisemite? Do today’s young readers know that his books have been “edited” these past few years to remove some of his language? Whether that was sensible or ridiculous is an argument for some other time.

As anyone who has written an obituary knows, we humans are complex: a mix of the good, the bad and the ugly.

We can praise and benefit from the good, condemn the bad and wonder about the ugly.

To cast aside the good is to punish ourselves.

Post World War II, two famous orchestra conductors, Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert von Karajan continued to conduct, despite their pre-war and wartime links to the Nazis. Their talent was too good for the survivors to be deprived of its benefits.

Moving from baton to pen and brush; there’s yet another successful Australian children’s book author facing court on pedophilia-related charges. He is soon to be sentenced. 

Fortunately for all of us, he is not in the ACT where his writing talents would wither.

In NSW the courts administration has been buying prisoner art and it is being hung on the walls of at least one large court complex.

Apparently, they understand that criminal conduct is just one facet of any prisoner. There are often good facets, too.

I hope, even if you don’t, that the NSW pedophile author can write great stories for children, whether that is while in prison or under some other sentencing regime. He can contribute to happiness and laughter while under punishment. Time will tell.

Former barrister Hugh Selby is the CityNews legal matters columnist.