Shamed author found dead

An award-winning children's writer whose career was ruined when he was jailed for sex attacks on children has been found dead at his home in the Yorkshire Dales. William Mayne, who was 82, was the author of more than 100 books and was regarded as one of the leading children's authors of the 20th-century. But his career crashed to a halt in 2004 when he was jailed for two-and-a-half years by a judge at Teesside Crown Court. He was also placed on the sex offenders' register and banned from working with children for life after admitting to 11 charges of indecent assault between 1960 and 1975. [...] A police spokesman said: "At about 9.15am we were called to the sudden death of an 82-year-old man. There are no suspicious circumstances." [...] The Oxford Companion to Children's Literature described him as one of the most outstanding children's authors of the last century.

source: 'Shamed author found dead'; www.darlingtonandstocktontimes.co.uk/news/5081618.Shamed_author_found_dead; Darlington and Stockton Times; 24 March 2010