ARTIST John Bulley has destroyed his own mural at a Southend school, after one parent complained it showed inappropriate images of children.

The complaint referred to images of leaping children, with a small portion of their midriffs bared. The parent also took exception to an image of a little girl, with her legs slightly apart.

Exploitative pictures of children should be banished, not just from public walls, but also from existence. Yet was this picture really so offensive?

Just enough of it survives the whitewashing to reveal a happy and completely innocent scene of childhood, without a hint of anything untoward. It is hard to believe the rest of the painting was radically different.

The picture would, in any case, only be reflecting reality.

Children do often show patches of midriff when playing energetically.

It is hard to pass final judgement, now the original picture is no longer available as a reference point, but it does seem the complainant may have been excessively sensitive.

Sadly the fracas is a reflection of the tensions that have arisen in the wake of the Jimmy Savile and Rolf Harris cases. Almost any depiction of children can become the subject of suspicion and antagonism. Artists will have to think carefully before they paint children at all.