Oh Lord, yes. I'd forgotten the hideous details - I think I may have supressed them, as I like Jo generally, even in her stuffied later incarnation, and am inclined to put it down to temporary demonic possession (or a piece of really bad writing which hopefully would have been altered if the book had been properly revised by the author before publication).

The only way it can possibly be explained, though not excused, is that Jo is projecting herself onto Len and Jack onto the unspeakable Reg, though the situations aren't really parallel and the characters aren't the same.....