Talk:Agustín Fernández (composer)

Agustín Fernández: convicted sex offender and former academic

A series of incremental edits by User:John Melmoth has eroded this article's previously even-handed treatment of Prof. Fernández's career-ending conviction and disappearance. In my opinion the current revision is more than just a distortion of the facts; it is a carefully crafted smokescreen designed to leave the reader wondering what all the fuss was about.

I am editing this article to re-emphasise the following simple facts.

1. Fernández was convicted in absentia of a campaign of sexual violence warranting a 23-year sentence. For anyone unfamiliar with sentencing in the UK, this is considerably longer than the typical sentence for murder. To be sentenced to 23 years for conduct short of murder is almost unheard of. It does not happen by accident or by the whims of a judge. It reflects behaviour that is at the absolute extreme of seriousness. The reporting of such behaviour in the local papers (not the "tabloids" as claimed in the article) is naturally going to omit the more gruesome details so as not to distress the readership, but the definition of a "bladed article" (i.e. a knife) was an issue in the trial.
2. The absence of the defendant does not render the guilty verdict any less of a verdict. On the contrary, the public can be more confident of Fernández's guilt given his refusal to appear in court. At a criminal trial, the defendant's own testimony is only one facet of the evidence, and not necessarily an important one. It is absolutely normal for the defendant not to "take the stand" i.e. to say anything at all beyond entering a plea. Therefore, to call the issue of Fernández's guilt "not yet resolved" is at odds with reality.
3. Fernández has not been sighted in public in the three years since the verdict. He is very much a former composer and academic and current convicted sex offender and wanted fugitive. His employment at Newcastle University was terminated in 2019. His office is occupied by someone else. His works have not been performed anywhere since then. He maintained a blog entitled "Diary from Exile", first public, then private. Lots of academics are put on gardening leave and maintain a public profile while their employer looks into some complaints; that is not what happened to Fernández, hence the word "exile". He, a Bolivian citizen, left the UK and went into a self-imposed physical exile, probably in Bolivia. The claim that he has lived and worked in the UK since 1984 is inaccurate. He is not here.
4. Whether Fernández continues to protest his innocence and consider himself a victim of a miscarriage of justice, are facts known only to himself and his associates. In addition to not appearing in public for three years, he has not spoken publicly since his blog went dark. Anyone speaking on behalf of Fernández is either guessing or has information that would be useful to the UK police. The vast majority of User:John Melmoth's edits have been to this one article, but his other contributions include an article about a Bolivian music venue, an edit to an article on one of Fernández's Newcastle colleagues, an estimate of the number of Bolivians in Newcastle given "20 years' observation", and a translation of the current article (Agustín Fernández (composer)) into fluent Spanish. Is this enough of a trail of breadcrumbs to conclude that Melmoth is Fernández himself under a pseudonym? Chi Sigma (talk) 18:39, 18 July 2023 (UTC)

The proposed changes to this article strike me as a fierce and personal character assassination. I am sure that our colleagues at Wikipedia will agree that they must be blocked.

Fernández does does not have an article in Wikipedia in his capacity as a convict of UK justice, but as a composer. His contribution in this field has been made, it is significant and nothing can detract from that. Most of the views Chi Sigma voices are not relevant to the subject's compositional work. And they are that - views, not factual information. Moreover, they are views charged with animosity.

There was an extensive article on this composer prior to 2020, but it was mangled following the trial with words which had all the appearance of persecution rather than information. All I have tried to do is restore some balance, reinstating some information on his career without obliterating the reality of his trial and sentence.

To address Chi Sigma's thoughts point by point:

1. Chi Sigma needs to reread the sentencing guidelines for murder. Typically they are rather longer than 23 years. As to the press coverage, if he has read it he will know that it was spearheaded by The Daily Mail/The Mail Online and that what he calls "the local papers" modelled their coverage very closely on TDM. I would be interested in Chi Sigma's argumentation to promote TDM from the ranks of tabloid press. It would be instructive, too, to hear how Chi Sigma knows that the "bladed object" was an issue at the trial. Did he attend it? Does he, then, have a personal interest in this case?

2. The fact of the defendant's absence from his trial is stated as a fact in the existing Wikipedia text, without any exonerating judgement. It is Chi Sigma who warms to his subject with strong opinions that fall short of factual even-handedness. "The issue is not resolved" refers to the corrective actions Fernández has said he is taking (Diary of Exile). The fact that we have not heard what they are or what their outcome is or will be does not entitle us to bury the issue as "resolved". The defendant claimed innocence before, during and after his trial. Given the long and well-documented history of miscarriages of justice in the UK it would seem unwise to dismiss his denials without knowing their substance.

3. The statement "He is very much a FORMER composer and academic and current convicted sex offender and wanted fugitive" comes across as diatribe, lacking in scholarly detachment or even journalistic objectivity - unless Chi Sigma's standards of reporting are those of the British tabloid press. Does he know that Fernández is no longer composing? How does he? As to his claim that his work has not been performed since 2019, it is simply ill-informed. Chi Sigma refers to Diary of Exile. If he has read it, he will know that this blog was active and public throughout 2019, while the blogger was physically in the UK. The welcome banner made it clear that the word "exile" referred to his enforced removal from his life as he had known it. To say the contrary of what the author has written is, to put it mildly, a personal view, of the kind Wikipedia's guidelines specifically warn us against.

4. Fernández's protestations of innocence have been made public in his blog and have been reported in the press, including TDM. To say that these "are facts known only to himself and his associates" is, to put it mildly, inaccurate. Chi Sigma questions my motives to write on Fernández and some other Bolivian figures. I would question his, in view of the personal animosity his words ill-disguisedly convey.

I urge our colleagues at Wikipedia to block Chi Sigma's proposed edits. John Melmoth (talk) 21:01, 18 July 2023 (UTC)