Gove gives sex offender Taki a shameful Spectator return

Former Conservative minister turned Spectator editor Michael Gove has been widely criticised for his decision to publish, under the front-page tagline “My Life And Loves”, a 2100-word article by ageing Greek socialite and journalist Taki Theodoracopulos, who was convicted of attempted rape only two years ago.

The shipping magnate’s son then had his long-running column for the right wing magazine cancelled by previous editor Fraser Nelson, but has been allowed to return by Gove, first with an article on his late friend Lady Annabel Goldsmith in October and now this new piece.

In it, the 89-year-old makes clear his attitude to what he calls “the fairer sex”, with mentions of a “plump cutie pie” (the actress Jodie Foster) and the women he encountered while struggling on the tennis circuit in his youth (“in those days the females who followed tennis looked more like losers than the losers”). He writes: “I have taken it as my mission to publicly defend that most marginalised of contemporary species, the ardent womaniser. I have accepted the inevitable slings and arrows and lived with the consequences.”

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Theodoracopulos mentions his home in Gstaad, but not the 2009 incident for which he received a 12-month sentence, suspended for two years. His victim told the court that while staying at Taki’s chalet, “He came towards the bed and started kissing me again. Again, I wasn’t frightened, I just thought he was being silly, and then he pushed me down on the bed and he was saying to me: ‘I want to fuck you. Come on, I want to fuck you’…

“It was very physical. I was really frightened because he was a very strong man, an athlete, and I thought it would be easy if I just let him do it so he didn’t hurt me. But I kept on pushing him away from me and eventually he stopped and I told him in a quiet voice to leave the room.”Anti-VAWG (Violence Against Women and Girls) campaigner Becky Paton was among those criticising Gove’s decision on social media, writing: “Why the actual fuck does the Spectator still employ Taki, a man recently convicted of attempted rape?”