At 6PM last night Matthew Kelly was arrested over allegations of child abuse. Whilst the headlines broke quickly I find the general story uninteresting so I didn't actually read more until lunch today, and I was delighted to see that the 'papers haven't let anyone down.

Of course everyone needs to be told how in 2000 he said in an interview he would neither confirm or deny he was gay. It's a matter of public interest to be told that he once lived with a drag artist, and of course the shock revelation that he admits he's camp! Whilst the allegations involve boys under the age of 16 surely we're all smart enough to understand that these things are more complicated than whichever type of genitalia Mathew Kelly may prefer his partners to posess.

Now I do tend to find these stories somewhat boring, however this story actually manages to produce a couple of interesting pieces of information. Firstly Mr Kelly is actually in panto right now. The show is based in Birmingham and comes to the end of it's run on Saturday. Now after arresting him they had to drive him 130 miles to a police station in Surrey, and they would have passsed vaguely by his home in west London to reach the police station. Is it not unreasonable to assume that he would have returned home after the weekend anyway? Since that would involve less time and money for the police force shouldn't they have considered waiting a couple more days given that their resources are so strained? Don't get me wrong; I'm not saying they should let random criminals walk the streets just because it's too much effort for them, but these allegations are based on events from the 70's. Apparently Matthew Kelly's name was mentioned in relation to them back in November 2001. Now to me this makes him sound like a fairly low risk individual. Given how many years have passed since the alleged offence occured, and that the police have been investigating this man for 15 months no one would have been any the wiser if the arrest happened next week. Except of course something like that couldn't happen without someone trying to launch their own agenda on the world. Don't let common sense get in the way of such things!

More comically I suspect I may have found out the reason for the early arrest. Apparently the two policemen who arrested Kelly first sat undercover in the audience and watched the panto! I feel there should be a MasterCard spoof in there somewhere.

Journey to Birmingham: £50
Tickets to Panto: £30
Arresting a celebrity: Priceless!