One of the quirks of local politics is that many towns still have a mayor. Chippenham, Melksham, Marlborough, Trowbridge, Devizes and Malmesbury, to name but a few, all retain the mayoralty.

The mayors have no power to speak of, they’re mainly a civic representation of their town.

In Devizes, the job generally goes to the town councillor who’s been around the longest without doing the job before and has kept their nose clean; but it’s still an honour and a privilege to be chosen to do it.

There are plenty of people around who are former mayors. One night in a pub in Devizes I counted seven people who had been Mayor of Devizes, including me.

Lots feature in the pages of this newspaper as they often continue to serve the communities they love. But ‘former Mayor of Devizes’ is a term that’s featured in the news all too often lately.

And not for the right reasons as the title is now connected with the term ‘sex offender’. Because it’s sad to say that one of our number has been shown to be just that.

As I’m sure you’ll have read, Tim Price has been convicted of offences against a young boy.

Sure, at the time, Tim was young himself. But the victim was a child. And that makes a former mayor of Devizes a sex offender.

This is the first time, to my knowledge, that I’ve known someone who’s been found guilty of such a horrible offence.

I’m not what you’d call a mate of Tim’s but I’ve known him for the best part of 20 years and we’ve always got on pretty well, sharing a pint and a laugh together on more than one occasion.

Like everyone else who knows him, I was shocked. And as for his close mates, they seem to be shell-shocked.

The day after the verdict, one told me that he expected to be nursing a hangover that day, having celebrated the acquittal of his friend. He wasn’t challenging the verdict but he seemed numbed by what it proved his friend had done – and kept quiet about.

Another of his mates said there’s no class at school that prepares you for one of your closest friends being a convicted paedophile.

Price did a good job as mayor and there’s no suggestion that he abused that position and his offences predated that time by a couple of decades.

His picture is, to the best of my knowledge, still on display in the Town Hall, alongside all those who’ve had the privilege to be mayor for the last century and a half or so.

I don’t want to get all Ministry of Truth here, much as I admire O’Brien, but should it be? Sure, few people are blemish free but most of us feel there are certain lines that cannot be crossed. And sexual abuse of a minor is one of the biggest of these.

You might say “it’s only a picture” but the Town Hall gallery is a record of those who’ve been lucky enough to represent the town.

As such, I see it as a statement and quite a symbolic one at that. My heart says that Tim Price’s picture should come down; and that if it doesn’t then I’ll ask for mine to be removed instead.

But my head says that maybe it should remain. If only as a salutary reminder that people who do wicked things (even if they are not necessarily inherently evil) walk amongst us.

They always were and they probably always will be. We just need to be aware of the danger.