Married to a Paedophile, review: a perplexing, challenging film to understand

Traumatised families were the subject of Married to a Paedophile (Channel 4) and there was little in the way of redemption here. Just pain and a challenge to understand. Director Colette Camden’s film dramatised real-life recordings of two women whose husbands were convicted of downloading sexual images of children, with actors lip-synching their voices.

What emerged were very different responses to much the same scenario. Kate (Sinead Keenan) had broken up with her husband, and father of two grown-up daughters, in the wake of his conviction. Devastated, mortified, fending off the jibes of neighbours, she was desperately seeking to rebuild her life. Her husband, also interviewed, had avoided prison but lost everything (including his job as a teacher) and was living 170 miles away.

Over the course of a year, the most painful – of many – moments recorded was between Kate and her daughter, an awkward, politely fractious conversation exposing variant attitudes to forgiveness and personal responsibility.  

More complex still was the response of Helen (Abigail McKern), whose husband of 44 years was about to be released after a lengthy sentence – the images he downloaded having been, in her words, “in the most extreme category”. Helen was startlingly upbeat, looking forward to “starting our lives again”.

Seven months after his release her loyalty had been stretched as far as it would go by the realisation that her husband “never really accepted what happened”. Forced to choose between him and her grandchildren, she chose them and, to an even greater extent, herself. “I feel free,” she admitted on revealing that they were separated.

This well made, well performed film was tough viewing. Why two loved husbands and fathers would commit such crimes remained perplexing. But there could be no doubting the devastating, and ongoing, pain and distress wrought on their families as a result.