The Power of the Paedos - another high profile case hits the 'never happened' wall?

[Jan Klimkowski]

The fine piece of journalism below from the non-Murdoch tabloid, the Daily Mirror, is a part of the paedophile scandal only tangentially linked to North Wales.

I believe this is where Tom Watson MP is going.

The Paedophile Infomation Exchange (PIE), was a British paedophile network before the days of computers, with international links, and involvement from public figures such as Ambassadors, academics and child care practioners.

And political figures.

By Keir Mudie

Abuse scandals probe widens: The man who may hold key to UK's biggest paedophile network ever
11 Nov 2012 09:11


Charles Napier could provide vital evidence for police investigation a child abuse scandal spanning three decades

Inquiry: Charles Napier near his home on Friday
Newspics


In the picturesque Dorset town of Sherborne, Charles Napier is an upstanding member of the community.

He is known as a respected retired languages teacher, a playwright and theatre director.

Only last month he gave a lecture on William Shakespeare at the town's literary festival.

But Napier's sordid past threatens to drag him into the heart of new inquiries into a child abuse scandal spanning three decades.

Evidence now being examined by Metropolitan Police detectives links Napier to Peter Righton, one of Britain's most high-profile paedophiles.

Righton is now long dead. But Napier is not. Now 68 and living with his mother in the West Country, he could prove a vital witness to the unfolding police inquiry into child abuse on a massive scale in this country.

Both men were linked to a shadowy organisation called the Paedophile Information Exchange which campaigned in the 70s and 80s for what they called the age of "child love" to be reduced to four.

Righton was a founder of PIE, Napier its one-time treasurer. Righton, incredibly, was also one of Britain's leading child protection specialists.

But when police raided his house in Evesham, Worcs, in 1992 they found not only hard-core child abuse images from Amsterdam but a "quarter-century of correspondence" between paedophiles in Britain and around the world.

Obscene

The probe led police to the kitchen of a flat in South London where they found a letter from 'Napier - who had a child assault conviction 20 years before - boasting of his life in Cairo as a"British Council teacher.

He bragged of easy access toyoung boys and how he could sendObscene images back to Britain indiplomatic bags.

The scandal erupted again when Labour MP Tom Watson raised the matter with David Cameron in the House of Commons last month suggesting a network of paedophiles working in the UK had links to high levels of Government.

He believes there was an Establishment cover-up of the Righton files and his claims are now being investigated by a Scotland Yard team.

Since Mr Watson's first dramatic announcement, dozens of victims have come forward with allegations of shocking abuse by paedophiles at care homes across Britain.

SHOCKED: Author Several names of senior politicians have been put in the frame though, it has to be said, without any evidential corroboration. However, what is clear is that there are real concerns that more could and should have been done after Righton's 1992 arrest and subsequent caution for indecent assault of a boy 30 years before.

Even Michael Hames, then head of Scotland Yard's Obscene Publications Squad, who handled the Righton files expressed disappointment more was not done. Writing in 2000 of the Righton inquiry, he called for a national team to be set up to investigate paedophiles, adding: "I remain convinced that we have only touched the tip of a huge national and international problem."

The story of Charles Napier is an extraordinary one that shows how a paedophile was able to operate with impunity while holding down a thoroughly respectable lifestyle.

It illustrates how there was little or no safety net to prevent child abusers from returning to their sick ways. And it begins at Copthorne Preparatory School, West Sussex, in the late 60s.

This week, respected author and journalist Francis Wheen told the Sunday People how he was just 11 when Napier arrived at the school.

He says Napier, then in is 20s, charmed the youngsters with his sports car, dashing good looks and claims that he was a professional actor.

Mr Wheen said: "He recruited a few of us, saying 'spend more time in the gym' and appointed himself gym master. There was a room off the gym and that became his haunt.

"Four or five of us started regularly going down there, vaulting over horses and things like that, in our gym shorts in all our innocence.

"At the end of it he would take us into his room off the gym and give us beer and cigarettes - bottles of Mackeson's and Senior Service untipped.

"We thought this was terrifically exciting. Here we were, 11 years old, being given beer and fags - we were thinking he's on our side not like any of the other masters. cigarettes , nd king ot like asters.

"And of course this was for an ulterior purpose which very soon became clear when he stuck his hand down my gym shorts and I had to sort of fight him off."

Napier then revealed his terrifying technique for grooming the youngsters by trying to humiliate the 11-year-old Francis.

Mr Wheen said: "He said 'Don't be such a baby' and said I wasn't grown-up enough for that sort of thing. He would point to a couple of other boys, saying 'They let me do it. You just won't let me because you're so babyish.'

Francis Wheen "I think he was hoping I'd say 'no I'm as grown up as them' and let him get on with it but I didn't. It meant I was excluded from his 'charmed circle' after that - but by then I knew where he kept his beer and cigarettes so I used to break into his room, steal them and go sit in the woods.

"I could enjoy them without being sexually abused."

Mr Wheen also described the culture of silence that grew up around the assaults, with youngsters reluctant to report the teacher, feeling they wouldn't be believed.

He added: "A year or two after I left, my younger brother - who was still at the school - came back from holidays and told me Mr Napier had been sacked.

"At long last one boy who had been sexually molested had been innocent enough to go to the headmaster and report him.

"There was a very hasty exit made by Napier. He had a flashy sp so up, speed and sports car and as soon as the game was up, he roared off at speed and pranged it on the school gates. I think I got away quite lightly - I can't pretend I've been scarred for life by it. But I'm sure there are children out there who have been badly damaged by Charles Napier."

In 1972, Napier was found to have indecently assaulted pupils at a Surrey school where he was working. After being banned from teaching, he left the country.

In 1978, he was working in Sweden where he taught at a junior school with pupils as young as 11 - and was visited by Righton.

Napier later surfaced in Egypt, where he worked as the assistant head of studies with the British Council in Cairo.

A letter from the time saw him boast to a friend that the city was "full of boys, 98 per cent of them available".

He also helped set up and run a school in Turkey. His picture appears on a website offering English as a Foreign Language, where he boasts: "Most of my posts have been in Europe, North Africa or the Middle East, and for the last eight years I've been in Istanbul, running my own school and writing a series of course books for Turkish students."

Back in England, Napier was jailed for nine months in 1995 for sexually abusing a 14-year-old boy he'd lured to his home in the 80s.

He befriended the lad, enticing him with lager and computer games - then abused him.

Prosecutors said: "It wasn't just a stranger grabbing a boy in the park. This was a slow insidious process. The boy was trapped - not forced."

Righton, a founder member of PIE, was at one time the UK's leading authority on the protection of children.

Yet he used his power to not only hide his paedophilia, but to help other child abusers - among them Napier.

The latter's ban on teaching meant he was added to List 99, a precursor of the Sex Offenders' Register.

And Righton - the subject of a 1994 documentary on paedophiles - used his influence to try to have Napier removed from the list so he could be allowed back into schools.

Risk Righton wrote to the Department of Education saying: "Mr Napier is a gifted teacher of both adults and children.

"I believe that during the years since his conviction he has acquired a knowledge and disciplined mastery of himself which would justify the conclusion he no longer constitutes a sexual risk to children in his charge.

"It would give me great pleasure - and cause me no anxiety - to hear the Secretary of State had reviewed his decision of October 24, 1972, in Mr Napier's favour."

In 1981, the ban was relaxed to allow Napier into colleges and universities. In 1990 he applied for the ban to be further relaxed - this time enlisting Dr Malcolm Fraser as his referee.

Dr Fraser was convicted in 1992 for possessing indecent photographs of children. His third conviction saw him struck off - and Napier remained on the banned list.

Mr Wheen thought he'd seen the last of his former teacher but their paths crossed again in 1977, when he was commissioned to write an article about PIE and its desire to lower the age of consent.

A senior group member told Mr Wheen: "You must speak to our treasurer.

He's very good. Very well informed about the issues."

And Mr Wheen was astonished to discover the expert he was being put in touch with was his former teacher - now PIE's treasurer - Charles Napier.

Mr Wheen added: "I didn't really want to speak to him. I couldn't believe what my old teacher had become."

Napier declined to comment yesterday

[Jan Klimkowski]

Here is Tom Watson MP's letter of November 11, 2012:

Response to Rob Wilson MP

November 11th, 2012


Dear Rob,


Thank you for your recent letter which I read online yesterday.

I appreciate your concern for the heat to be taken out of the public debate around this issue but as you have raised this with me publicly, I feel duty bound to explain that which I had wished to remain private.

Your central point is that any allegations I receive should go to the police. I am not sure why you have assumed that this is not happening. You are wrong, in any case.

It remains the case that the documents seized in the investigation into paedophile Peter Righton provide clear intelligence suggesting a child abuse ring that links to a former aide of a Prime Minister. In fact this was my sole focus when the matter was raised with the PM in the House. My concern was not the shortcomings of the previous inquiry into North Wales and at the time I was not aware of any allegations made about politicians relating to North Wales.

This is also why I believe the terms of reference for the inquiry announced by the Home Secretary are inadequate and at some point in the future will have to be broadened, as I told the Home Secretary on Tuesday.

As you know, I have some history with the Metropolitan police. We now know that during the hacking scandal, the organisation was sitting on a vast amount of intelligence that provided clear evidential leads suggesting much wider criminal wrongdoing.

In raising the matter with the PM I was seeking to ensure that the new team at the Met were aware that there could be clear intelligence held by them that would warrant a second look in this case too. I believe this is now happening.

Since raising the issue with the PM, a number of other allegations have been made of which I have made the police aware.

My concern is that the institutions that are there to protect vulnerable children may have historically failed. I do not know why this is the case but seek to understand it. This will take time and I would welcome your ideas as to how child protection policy can be improved in years to come.

The former child protection specialist who raised his concerns with me did so because after the Murdoch scandal, he felt I was prepared to speak out on a perceived injustice and see it through to the end no matter where the evidence leads and whoever it affects and regardless of political persuasion. I should point out to you that my few public statements regarding an alleged child abuse ring have taken pains not to identify the political affinity of the suspected perpetrators. Nor have I at any point, publicly identified the time period to which the allegations apply. This is not a fit subject for point scoring.

I hope you now understand that I am fully co-operating with the police and that I will not let this matter drop regardless of what pressure is bought to bear by those that seek to undermine legitimate inquiry.

[Jan Klimkowski]

OK - the following article claims that Savile was a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).

The sources are not disclosed. However, I'm sure the membership list is a highly guarded secret.

If it's true that Savile was a member of PIE, then his crimes have been known for decades.

The PIE membership list would have been known to Special Branch and to British intelligence, and presumably also to the BBC's Man in the Mac, the SIS liaison.

Savile member of the Paedophile Information Exchange an Organisation which campaigned for the abolition of the age of consent in the UK

October 18, 2012


NEWS RELEASE

The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is embroiled in a child sex scandal centred on Jimmy Savile, its anchorman on many popular entertainment shows for over thirty years. Now new information is surfacing which indicates that Jimmy Savile was a fully paid up member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (P.I.E) - an organisation which campaigned for the abolition of the age of consent in the UK.

The letter below has been sent to Lord Patten, Chairman of the BBC Trust. In it I have stated "I am placing this information before you in this open letter as I feel that the BBC should now initiate a full investigation into these reports suggesting that during the 1970's and early 1980's the BBC's editorial policy was influenced in favour of P.I.E. This alleged infiltration of the BBC by P.I.E might also explain how Savile was able to operate as a sexual predator during his extended tenure at the BBC without challenge and/or prosecution."

I will pursue my objective of securing a full investigation into the alleged membership of Jimmy Savile of the organisation, P.I.E. I will also continue to seek a full and open investigation of the influence, if any, that P.I.E exerted on BBC editorial policy during the 1970′s and 1980′s. I also expect the authorities to investigate whether any BBC employees were members of P.I.E or expressed sympathy and support for the aims and objectives of P.I.E.

Further links are set out at the bottom of this email.

MICHAEL .H. MURRIN

21 GOODWOOD AVENUE. PRESTON. PR2 9TZ

TELE: 0795 142 6617

murrin@hotmail.co.uk

Lord Patten
Chairman
The British Broadcasting Association Trust
The BBC Trust Unit
180 Great Portland Street
London
W1W 5QZ

12th October 2012.

Dear Lord Patten,

RE: BBC / Jimmy Savile.

This is an open letter, i.e. I do not regard it as confidential and reserve the right to publish it. There are some parts of it in italics, these sections I do regard as confidential and, as such, they will not be published.

During 1982 I initiated an investigation into corruption in public life which resulted in the criminal prosecution of some high profile figures for offences against children, including serial child rape.

PARAGRAPH DELETED.

I turn now to the reason for my writing to you at this point.

My investigation led me to the fringes of the Paedophile Information Exchange (P.I.E), an organisation whose history is a matter of public record. The organisation was founded during October 1974 and officially disbanded during 1984. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paedophile_...n_Exchange

Due to a lack of financial support my investigation into PIE was severely limited although I did secure two names on the membership list of the organisation, one was Jimmy Savile. One of the key aims of the organisation was to secure a reduction of the age of consent in the UK to FIVE and then abolish it altogether. The organisation secured significant support within parliament, the entertainment industry, the media and similar, professional, organisations. It was reported that, when the organisation was finally closed down, the membership list was found to contain the names of nationally known politicians, entertainers and people engaged in professions, including the medical and legal profession. Some teachers were, I believe, also found to be registered members. The quality and influential nature of its membership and the extent of support for the aims of the organisation among opinion formers' probably explains how it managed to remain in existence in this country for a decade before it was finally closed down. My investigations did clearly indicate that the tentacles of P.I.E extended deep into the establishment including the BBC and Parliament.

This quote from the book Paedophilia The Radical Case (Chapter 11) gives an indication of just how far the tentacles of P.I.E had spread and how influential the organisation had become.

"One outcome of the MIND conference was the suggestion to Keith that PIE should submit evidence to the Home Office Criminal Law Revision Committee on the age of consent. With amazing despatch Keith did exactly this, preparing and submitting the seventeen-page document discussed in Chapter 6 in a matter of weeks, without the benefit of research time or facilities at his disposal. What's more, we have it on reliable authority that his work caught the imagination of no less a figure than the Home Secretary of the time, Roy Jenkins."

The source who notified me that Savile was a fully paid up member of the organisation is extremely reliable. Other sources implied that Savile's membership of P.I.E was known to others within the BBC who were either sympathetic to its objectives or were members themselves. This might explain why there appeared to be no effective pursuit of the organisation by BBC sponsored current affairs and investigative programmes during that period of P.I.E's existence.

I am placing this information before you in this open letter (except for the parts in ITALICS) as I feel that the BBC should now initiate a full investigation into theses reports suggesting that during the 1970's and early 1980's the BBC's editorial policy was influenced in favour of P.I.E. This alleged infiltration of the BBC by P.I.E might also explain how Savile was able to operate as a sexual predator during his extended tenure at the BBC without challenge and/or prosecution.

It has been reported that Savile was responsible for the sexual assault of a brain damaged child at Stoke Mandeville Hospital. It has been stated "it can get no lower than this." I beg to differ. My understanding is that the archive at New Scotland Yard hold an image of the youngest child recorded as being sexually abused, the child was female and was still attached to its mother by the umbilical cord. Perhaps there is some way to go before we reach the bottom of this "cesspit?"

I do expect and formal and comprehensive response from you within a reasonable time period. A copy of this letter has been forward to The Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, Mr Bernard Hogan-Howe.

Yours sincerely,

Michael H. Murrin

[Magda Hassan]

The PIE membership list would have been known to Special Branch and to British intelligence, and presumably also to the BBC's Man in the Mac, the SIS liaison.

Indeed. And Sir Jimmy obviously posed no threat to the establishment with his abusive predation of minors. If, on the other hand, he had been a paid up member of the Communist Party of Great Britain it would have been quite another matter and totally unacceptable and his career at the BBC would have been a short one.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Meanwhile, back in more exalted surroundings:

Retired bishop Peter Ball arrested on suspicion of child sex offences

Rt Rev Peter Ball thought to be most senior Church of England figure to be arrested in connection with a sex abuse inquiry

Robert Booth

guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 13 November 2012 12.24 GMT


Detectives investigating complaints of sexual abuse in the Church of England have arrested a retired bishop on suspicion of eight sexual offences against eight boys and young men ranging in age from 12 to early 20s.

Officers from the Sussex police serious crime directorate involved in a six-month investigation into historic allegations at the diocese of Chichester arrested the Rt Rev Peter Ball, former bishop of Lewes and later bishop of Gloucester, on Tuesday morning at his home address near Landport, Somerset.

Ball is thought to be the most senior figure in the church to be arrested in connection with a sex abuse investigation. The bishop, now 80, has connections to Prince Charles, whom he has described in the past as "a loyal friend".

Police also arrested a 67-year old retired priest at his home address near Haywards Heath on suspicion of two separate sexual offences against two teenage boys in East Sussex between 1981 and 1983.

Detectives carried out a "comprehensive and painstaking" three-month analysis of two reports from Lambeth Palace, "which contain reviews of church files relating to certain child safeguarding issues within the Chichester diocese from between 20 and 25 years ago". They also reviewed internal church files containing details of clergymen's careers in the diocese, including Ball's.

A spokeswoman for a group representing the survivors of abuse by clergy said the arrests were "historic in terms of the seniority of the people being looked at". "This is the first bishop we have seen arrested over abuse allegations," said Ann Lawrence, of the Ministry and Clergy Sexual Abuse Survivors Group.

Sussex police said: "The investigation, which relates to alleged offences not previously reported to Sussex police, has taken six months so far. This is a very complex inquiry, in the course of which many people, all now adults, have had to be traced, together with other witnesses and records from a wide variety of sources, and there is continuing consultation with the Crown Prosecution Service.

"There are no allegations of recent or current offending and police emphasise that there is nothing to suggest that any young people are currently at risk. Police also stress that the allegations are being treated separately and do not involve the two men allegedly acting together."

The handling of allegations of abuse in the Chichester diocese was subject to an inquiry this year commissioned by the outgoing archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, thought to be the first such CofE "visitation" in more than 100 years. When he published the interim report in August, which did not identify any of those accused, Williams said the "abiding hurt and damage done to [survivors of abuse] is something that none of us in the church can ignore, and I am deeply sorry that they should have been let down by those they ought to have been able to trust".

In May 2011, Baronness Butler Sloss produced a report, commissioned by the church, reviewing the cases of two separate priests serving in the diocese who between 1996 and 2010 were the subject of allegations of child abuse that took place before 1984. She concluded that across the diocese there was "a lack of understanding of the seriousness of historic child abuse". There was, in the early stages, "a failure to respond appropriately to disclosures of abuse by victims and to give them adequate and timely support", the report said.

Ball was a senior figure in the diocese before he was enthroned as the bishop of Gloucester in 1991, a ceremony attended by Prince Charles. When Ball resigned in 1993 he moved to Manor Lodge, in the Somerset village of Aller. The wisteria-clad property is owned by the Duchy of Cornwall, the private estate headed by Charles.

At the time, Ball said: "He has been wonderfully kind and allowed me to have a duchy house. The prince is a loyal friend. I have immense admiration for him, he has been through horrific times and is a great person."

In a statement responding to the arrests, the chairman of the Churches National Safeguarding Committee, the Rt Rev Paul Butler, bishop of Southwell and Nottingham, said: "The Church of England takes any allegations of abuse very seriously and is committed to being a safe place for all. To this end we have robust procedures and policies in place.

"But we can never be complacent. We would like to urge any victims or those with information to feel free to come forward knowing that they will be listened to in confidence. We have also put support systems in place for all those involved with today's arrests. Should anyone have further information or need to discuss the personal impact of this news, the church has worked with the NSPCC to set up a confidential helpline number: 0800 389 5344."

[Jan Klimkowski]

The reality of Power.

Geoffrey Dickens MP was the scourge of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).

This is from Hansard, the official transcript of Britain's Parliament

HC Deb 15 November 1982 vol 32 cc18-9W19W

§Mr. Dickens
asked the Prime Minister whether Geoffrey Arthur Prime's membership of the Paedophile Information Exchange organisation was brought to the attention of the police or security agencies.


§The Prime Minister
I understand that stories that the police found documents in Prime's house or garage indicating that he was a member of the paedophile information exchange are without foundation, and that nothing has been discovered to suggest that he was.

So, official denial from Thatcher.

Oops, here's the Daily Telegraph....

Traitor Prime free after 19 years' jail

By Philip Johnston, Home Affairs Editor
12:00AM GMT 14 Mar 2001

THE traitor and paedophile Geoffrey Prime was released from prison on parole yesterday after serving half his 38-year sentence for betraying secrets to the KGB.

Prime, 62, who worked for the GCHQ intelligence-gathering centre in Cheltenham, was jailed in 1982. He would have been freed automatically two thirds of the way through his sentence in 2007, but prisoners are entitled to parole after serving half of their sentence if they show remorse.

Prime's freedom was agreed by the Parole Board after consultations between GCHQ and the Home Office. Officials judged that he was no longer a risk to national security. Prime was released from Rochester jail at 7am.

He started working for the KGB in 1968 while on RAF intelligence duties in West Berlin. It is thought that the Soviets learned of his paedophile activities and blackmailed him. He was persuaded to take a posting as a translator at GCHQ, where he had access to top secret codes and military frequencies.

He passed information to the KGB during regular visits to Vienna. The Soviet Union used his material to transmit dummy messages while real secrets were broadcast under different codes or sent by diplomatic bag.

His treachery is believed to have compromised Nato's contingency plans for defending Western Europe in the event of war. Moscow paid him a total of £8,000 before he was unmasked.

Prime was also a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange and had a card index of 2,287 young girls whom he targeted by phone. He will be placed on the sex offenders' register and is expected to live in a Probation Service hostel.

[Jan Klimkowski]

More from courageous reporter Eileen Fairweather:

I do not doubt men in smart cars preyed on boys but justice needs detective work, not trial by media

We need cool heads if the hundreds of victims of sex abuse, whose childhoods were corrupted and destroyed, are to receive justice

Daily Telegraph

By Eileen Fairweather
8:55PM GMT 09 Nov 2012

I have known for 20 years the inside story of the inquiry into the paedophile ring that, last month, the MP Tom Watson implied was shut down to protect a No10 aide in the Thatcher administration.

It did not involve Lord McAlpine, the former Tory treasurer, who was subjected to false rumours that linked him to the North Wales care home scandal. They were, Lord McAlpine said yesterday, ''wholly false and seriously defamatory''. It was, in fact, another aide to Margaret Thatcher. But I don't believe there is sufficient evidence for it to be legally safe or morally right to point the finger at this person either. Nor was it legally safe or morally right for the TV presenter Phillip Schofield to ambush the Prime Minister with a list of alleged Tory paedophiles pulled off the internet.

I have investigated child protection scandals in councils of all political hues, and I have learnt that child abuse is a cross-party crime. Liberals and socialists, not just Tories, must search their hearts and history if Britain's child abuse nightmare is to be solved.

I was dismayed this week to see child abuse turn into a party political football, and subjected to a "trial by Twitter". Our newspapers, too, appear to be dividing along such lines. Yet the scandal that led me to this inquiry, raised by Mr Watson, the Labour MP for West Bromwich East, during Prime Minister's Questions last month, stemmed not from a Tory cover-up but from the emerging New Labour establishment.

It was in the early 1990s I heard about the inquiry and met some of the police and social workers investigating it. At the time I was researching a paedophile ring that had infiltrated all 12 of the children's homes run by Islington council then led by Margaret Hodge and that appeared to be linked to it. Mr Watson was contacted in October by one of the inquiry's child protection experts, now retired. The coverage of the Savile scandal had awoken painful memories of how his evidence about Peter Righton, then a child care expert and children's homes consultant, was destroyed. He told Mr Watson: "My unit was closed down almost overnight and a manager took my files and burned them."


The investigation that Mr Watson described to a hushed Commons centred on Righton. The inquiry did involve names from the so-called establishment (though the Thatcher aide was linked by circumstances and hearsay). But what this inquiry also uncovered was the shocking attitude to abuse of some on the liberal Left and their involvement in it.

Righton was the former director of education at the National Institute for Social Work, and a consultant for the National Children's Bureau. Yet he was also a founding member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), which wanted the age of consent reduced to four. Righton published essays justifying paedophilia, which he called no more mysterious than "a penchant for redheads".

PIE did not present themselves as child abusers but "child lovers", keen to "liberate" children from sexual "repression". Their literature hijacked the language of liberation to persuade gay men and women, feminists and radicals that they had common interests in challenging "the patriarchy". Their propaganda was skilful and it still reverberates. Some of Righton's colleagues fell for this and later admitted that they were scared to challenge his enthusiasm for sex with children lest they seem "anti gay". Many youngsters made serious allegations against Righton.

It wasn't until Customs and Excise intercepted child pornography posted to him from Holland, in 1992, that police raided his home and found hundreds of letters between him and other paedophiles, revealing he had abused, prostituted and shared numerous boys.

Righton's correspondents included an assistant bishop, artists, aristocrats and public school teachers. It then emerged that Righton's lover ran a school for emotionally disturbed children, and Righton was vice-chairman of governors. New Barns School in Gloucestershire, which was attended by many children from London care homes, was investigated and closed down on child welfare grounds.

A criminal trial followed and all eight staff including Righton's lover were cleared of charges of conspiring to falsely imprison. Another teacher was jailed for the sexual abuse of girls. But concerns could have been raised years before, if only a far-Left council in London had acted as it should have.

This week I thought of Liam, a boy in one of the Islington homes central to the paedophile ring's production of pornography. Liam attended New Barns School: the deputy superintendent, Nick Rabet (who committed suicide in 2006 after being arrested for abuse), used to drive him there.

Liam suffered such trauma in care that he had a breakdown at 16, and his memories today are fragmented. He began telling people of the abuse in 1989, three years before the school was closed. His social worker was deeply concerned, and promised action. But on Christmas Eve 1989, he disappeared and Liam's files disappeared with him.

Many Islington social workers "just" burned out, or were threatened or victimised and gave up. Islington council assured police investigating New Barns it had never sent children there because there was no evidence to the contrary.

And so to renewed allegations about the North Wales care homes. I do not doubt claims that men in smart cars took young boys from these homes in order to abuse them. But exactly who they were is another question, given the unreliable memories and limited knowledge of traumatised and ill-educated victims.

The Daily Telegraph this week rightly expressed weariness with endless inquiries, which achieve little. Old-fashioned detective work is what is needed.

Watson's whistleblower was told by a detective that the inquiry into Peter Righton's alleged ring was closed "from on high". Righton was given a £900 fine for his child porn imports, and a caution for a 30-year-old indecent assault. Many similar investigations into paedophile rings have also hit the buffers. Cover-ups have taken place; events and individuals demanding investigation were ignored.

Yet let us not lose perspective. Talking of paedophile rings that lead to No 10, without definitive proof, could jeopardise the momentum for reform as claims and counter-claims are made and libel actions are threatened or actioned. Following the closure of the Righton investigation, former Det Ch Supt Mike Hames, head of Scotland Yard's Obscene Publications Squad wrote: "We have only touched the tip of a huge national and international problem." Like most child protection experts, he wanted national teams to investigate such allegations. We still do not have them.

But trial by media is not the answer. We need cool heads and a non-partisan approach if the hundreds of victims, whose childhoods were corrupted and destroyed, are to receive justice.

Eileen Fairweather is an award-winning journalist whose investigations over 20 years have helped expose several paedophile rings

[Jan Klimkowski]

The reality of Power. Again.

Historic links between PIE and what is now "Liberty".

Affiliation to the NCCL

By 1978 PIE and Paedophile Action for Liberation had become affiliated to the National Council for Civil Liberties, now known as Liberty, with members attending meetings. The organisation campaigned against newspapers' treatment of the Paedophile activist groups. Whilst affiliated with NCCL, PIE also campaigned to reduce the age of consent and oppose the proposed banning of child pornography. In 1976, in a submission to the Criminal Law Revision Committee, the NCCL asserted that "childhood sexual experiences, willingly engaged in, with an adult result in no identifiable damage" and that the Protection of Children Bill would lead to "damaging and absurd prosecutions". Whilst PIE was affiliated with it, the organisation argued for incest to be decriminalised and argued that sexually explicit photographs of children should be legal unless it could be proven that the subject had suffered harm or that the an inference to that effect or to the effect that harm might have been caused could reasonably be drawn from the images themselves, with Harriet Harman (later deputy leader of the Labour Party) arguing that it would "increase censorship".[3] NCCL had excluded PIE by 1983.[4]

PIE and "Henderson" aka Sir Peter Hayman

[edit] Legal action against members

In the summer of 1978, the homes of several PIE committee members were raided by the police as part of a full-scale inquiry into PIE's activities; as a result of this inquiry, a substantial report was submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions and the prosecution of PIE activists followed.

In particular, five activists were charged with printing contact advertisements in Magpie which were calculated to promote indecent acts between adults and children.

Others were offered lesser charges of sending indecent material through the mail if they testified against the five. These charges related to letters that the accused exchanged detailing various sexual fantasies. It eventually became clear that one person had corresponded with most of the accused but had not been tried. After the trial, it emerged that there had been a cover-up: Mr "Henderson" had worked for MI6 and been a high commissioner in Canada. Mr "Henderson" was later revealed via Private Eye to be Sir Peter Hayman. In 1981, Geoffrey Dickens MP asked the Attorney-General "if he will prosecute Sir Peter Hayman under the Post Office Acts for sending and receiving pornographic material through the Royal Mail". The Attorney-General, Michael Havers (Baron Havers of St Edmundsbury, who represented the Crown in the trial and appeal of the Guildford Four and also of the Maguire family (known as the Maguire Seven), all of whom were wrongfully convicted) replied, "I am in agreement with the Director of Public Prosecutions' (Sir Thomas Chalmers Hetherington QC) advice not to prosecute Sir Peter Hayman and the other persons with whom he had carried on an obscene correspondence."[5] Dickens asked, "How did such a potential blackmail risk come to hold highliy sensitive posts at the MOD and NATO?" He also asked the Leader of the House (of Commons) to investigate the security implications of diaries found in the diplomat's London flat which contained accounts of sexual exploits"[6] There was much debate and condemnation in the World's press of these events.[7]

Here is some of the Parliamentary nonsense and obfuscation that Geoffrey Dickens MP had to deal with.

HC Deb 19 March 1981 vol 1 cc139-40W139W

§Mr. Dickens
asked the Attorney-General if he will prosecute Sir Peter Hayman under the Post Office Acts for sending and receiving pornographic material through the Royal Mail.


§The Attorney-General
In 1978 a packet containing obscene literature and written material was found in a London bus. The subsequent police investigation revealed a correspondence of an obscene nature between Sir Peter Hayman and a number of other persons. Altogether a total of seven men and two women were named as possible defendants in the report submitted by the Metropolitan Police to the Director of Public Prosecutions.

The Director advised against prosecuting any of the nine persons either under section 11 of the Post Office Act 1953 or for any other offence. Among the considerations he took into account were the factors that the correspondence had been contained in sealed envelopes passing between adult individuals in a non-commercial context and that none of the material was unsolicited.

Subsequently the Metropolitan Police submitted a further report which revealed that one of the nine, not Sir Peter Hayman, was also carrying on a correspondence 140W with a tenth person. The police investigation showed that the two shared an obsession about the systematic killing by sexual torture of young people and children. In view of the extreme nature of the material they had sent each other, the Director of Public Prosecutions decided to prosecute them for conspiring to contravene section 11 of the 1953 Act. There is no evidence that Sir Peter Hayman has ever sent or received material of this kind through the post.

It has been suggested that Sir Peter Hayman was considered as a possible defendant following the police investigation into the conduct of the Paedophile Information Exchange which led to the recent trial at the Central Criminal Court for conspiracy to corrupt public morals. That prosecution was against persons alleged to have been involved in the management or organisation of PIE. Although Sir Peter Hayman had subscribed to PIE, that is not an offence and there is no evidence that he was ever involved in the management. At the recent trial, whilst there were general references to members of PIE, including, though not by name, Sir Peter Hayman, there was no reference to any material produced by him or found in his possession.

I am in agreement with the Director of Public Prosecutions' advice not to prosecute Sir Peter Hayman and the other persons with whom he had carried on an obscene correspondence.

The Director of Public Prosecutions and I remain determined that, where the evidence justifies it, prosecutions will be brought in cases involving sexual acts with children or offences under the Protection of Children Act 1978indecent photographs of children.

HC Deb 08 April 1981 vol 2 c298W298W

§Mr. Stokes
asked the Attorney-General, pursuant to his reply to the hon. Member for Huddersfield, West (Mr. Dickens) on 19 March, Official Report, col. 13940, whether the Director of Public Prosecutions gave special treatment to Sir Peter Hayman by taking steps to prevent his indentity being revealed in court.


§The Attorney-General
No special treatment was afforded to Sir Peter Hayman and no steps were authorised or taken to protect his identity in evidence given to the court during the trial of O'Carroll and other members of the executive committee of Paedophile Information Exchange. I made this clear in answers I gave to the hon. Member for Lewisham, West (Mr. Price) on 6 April[Vol. 2, c. 68283.]to which I refer my hon. Friend.

Furthermore, although the indictment in that case was amended before trial, this was because Treasury Counsel had doubts, following a preliminary hearing, as to whether the wording of the original charges might, as a matter of law, be open to objection. The amendment did not arise from any wish to protect the indentity of any person.

The material of a pornographic nature found in the possession of Sir Peter Hayman was not relied on by the prosecution at the trial. There was, so far as the Director of Public Prosecutions is aware, no evidence whatsoever of Sir Peter Hayman having received or sent by post any obscene photograph of a child or young person or of his having taken such photographs or of his having committed any other act which might have been an offence under section 1 of the Protection of Children Act 1978. The mere possession of obscene material whether relating to children or adults is not in itself a criminal offence.

The Director's decision not to take proceedings under the Post Office Act against Sir Peter Hayman and others was taken in January 1979 before he received any papers relating to the activities of O'Carroll and other members of the executive committee of PIE.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Link to a 1981 Sunday Times news clipping about "Henderson" aka former UK High Commissioner to Canada Sir Peter Hayman and PIE.

[Jan Klimkowski]

Geoffrey Dickens MP talking in 1985 in the House of Commons about the personal consequences of his campaign against PIE.

10.53 am

§Mr. Geoffrey Dickens(Littleborough and Saddleworth)
I congratulate the hon. Member for Greenock and Port Glasgow (Dr. Godman) on tabling this motion and on the delightful, kind and serious way in which he put his case. I am certain that he has added to the national debate on the subject. Back-Bench time is so precious that we are delighted that this subject has been chosen at a time when the nation is so angry.

Children face two great dangers. The first is the danger from adults who have a sexual attraction to children and who want a sexual relationship with them. Sadly, children are often killed as a result of that. The second danger is one that we have explored even more fully today. Youngsters may be injured or killed within their family unit by a parent, step-parent, common-law partner or simply a parent's casual lover.

I should like to think that I am speaking on behalf of 2 million parents who have signed petitions in support of my child protection campaign which has run for many years and for the thousands of parents who have written to me, pledging their support, putting forward ideas and providing a steady trickle of information leading to arrests and convictions.

I speak also for the little children and babies whose cries for mummy have to remain unanswered and for the 1134 little ones who are meant to be unheard by barbaric adults who mask their cries with cotton wool in the mouth, by closing a dark drawer or by wedging a door closed with wood. I speak for them all, so that their cries of anguish will be heard and they will not have died in vain. Out of their lives will come many important lessons.

Let me deal first with the adults who are obsessed with the thought of sexual relationships with children. They are evil and dangerous and, sadly, vast sums are exchanged for child-adult pornography. The noose around my neck grew tighter after I named a former high-flying British diplomat on the Floor of the House. Hon. Members will understand that where big money is involved and as important names came into my possession so the threats began. First, I received threatening telephone calls followed by two burglaries at my London home. Then, more seriously, my name appeared on a multi-killer's hit list. So the threats went on.

Child pornography is evil for two reasons. First, children have to be procured to produce this disgusting material, be it a photograph or a video film, and, secondly, adults can be corrupted with this material into wanting and desiring the real thing. It cannot be right to allow to exist any organisations that interest themselves in adult sex with a child. It is alien to our way of life, our thinking and our family units. I still call for them to be proscribed in my Paedophilia (Protection of Children) Bill. We have smashed the organisation known as PIE, the Paedophile Information Exchange. In its bulletin sent out to members it named my Bill, which has had its First Reading, as the reason for winding up the organisation. Some of its members are now in prison. Others have escaped to Holland, but we shall have them. However, other organisations are springing up and it is important that we should crush those in the same way.