Openly vile lad, as Con, failed us (10)

I believe the answer is:

scandalous

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'openly vile' is the definition.
'scandalous' can be an answer for 'vile' (thesaurus). I'm not certain of the 'openly' bit.

'lad as con failed us' is the wordplay.
'failed' indicates anagramming the letters.
'lad'+'as'+'con'='ladascon'
'ladascon' anagrammed gives 'scandalo'.
'scandalo'+'us'='SCANDALOUS'

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for scandalous that I've seen before include "Shocking and offensive" , "Outrageous" , "Highly improper" , "Causing outrage" , "Disgraceful" .)

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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