A city councillor has praised defendants being stripped of their OBEs but believes the honours system should not be entirely scrapped.
Just this week, it was announced that the founder of Barrow’s Owl Sanctuary, who was banned from keeping birds by a court, was stripped of his MBE.
Paul Allen Rose, of Walney, was sentenced in May 2024, after pleading guilty to two counts of causing unnecessary suffering to a protected animal and one count of failing to ensure animal welfare, contrary to Section 4 and Section 9 of the Animal Welfare Act 2006.
He was given a 20-week jail sentence, suspended for two years.
It comes after King Charles stripped award-winning UK composer Jan Latham‑Koenig of his OBE in 2025.
The London-born built an international career with posts at major opera houses and orchestras, and was known for his work with ensembles including the London Philharmonic and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Over the years, he has collected a string of honours, among them the Gulbenkian Fellowship and Russia’s Golden Mask award in 2014 for a production of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde.
He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire in the 2020 Birthday Honours for services to music and UK/Russia cultural relations.
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Oxford city councillor Susanna Pressel has now stated appropriate action is being taken in a statement issued to this newspaper.
She said: "It’s good that people like this are having their honours taken away from them. I don’t think there is any way of preventing it from happening. It seems to be hard to predict who will do something wicked. I suppose it shows that there is good and bad in everyone.
"I certainly don’t think that the honours system should be scrapped. About 99 per cent of recipients thoroughly deserve to be recognised for the amazing and public-spirited things they have done for our society, and for helping to make the world a better place.”
Latham‑Koenig also appeared regularly in Oxford, including conducting the Oxford University Orchestra in an “Evening of Wagner” at the Sheldonian Theatre in Michaelmas 2019, and returning for other university‑linked concerts in the city.
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In 2024, he admitted a series of child sex offences after sending sexual messages and an explicit image to an undercover police officer posing online as a 14‑year‑old boy, and was given a suspended prison sentence at Southwark Crown Court.
On August 1, 2025, an official notice in The London Gazette confirmed the King had directed his OBE “shall be cancelled and annulled” and that his name be erased from the order’s register, formally removing the honour.
A notice published on Thursday, March 5, by The Gazette says Rose had his MBE title stripped due to a criminal conviction.
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