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

[Jan Klimkowski]

David's list of Paedophile Information Exchange members is very important, and should be cross-referenced with the thread here, which includes anonymised interviews with many of the paedophiles in a pseudo-academic study.

There have been numerous attempts to present O'Carroll as a victim. I debunk some of them here:

Let's look at how Henley presents Tom O'Carroll, former Chair of the Paedophile Information Exchange and convicted child abuse imagery peddler:

Some academics do not dispute the view of Tom O'Carroll, a former chairman of PIE and tireless paedophilia advocate with a conviction for distributing indecent photographs of children following a sting operation, that society's outrage at paedophilic relationships is essentially emotional, irrational, and not justified by science. "It is the quality of the relationship that matters," O'Carroll insists. "If there's no bullying, no coercion, no abuse of power, if the child enters into the relationship voluntarily … the evidence shows there need be no harm."

Now let's look at O'Carroll in his own words:

In 1980 O'Carroll's book Paedophilia: The Radical Case was published, in which he advocates the normalization of some adult-child sexual relationships. In the book, O'Carroll states his belief that each stage of the sexual relationship between an adult and child can be 'negotiated', with "hints and signals, verbal and non-verbal, by which each indicates to the other what is acceptable and what is not... the man might start by saying what pretty knickers the girl was wearing, and he would be far more likely to proceed to the next stage of negotiation if she seemed pleased by the remark."

So an adult man tells a girl she's wearing pretty knickers as part of a "negotiation" towards a sexual relationship with that child.

And Henley holds that O'Carroll's views are worthy of serious academic and public consideration.

Now let's examine Henley's claim about O'Carroll falling foul of a "police undercover sting", which makes it look like O'Carroll was set up.

Here's the Met Police press release:

Men jailed for making and distributing indecent images of children

20 December 2006


A high-profile paedophile activist and a man who possessed the widest range of abusive material known to the Met have today been sentenced to imprisonment at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court.

Thomas Victor O'Carroll was sentenced to two and a half years imprisonment and will be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for 10 years.


"The guilty pleas of O'Carroll and Studdert are an example of how patience, tenacity and the commitment of the Met's Paedophile Unit paid dividends in this investigation"

Michael John De Clare Studdert was sentenced to four years imprisonment for making and downloading indecent images, two years for distributing indecent images and three years for possession of indecent images. All sentences are to run concurrently. The judge ordered that he be placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life and he is also subject of a Sex Offences Prevention Order, which prohibits him from owning a computer or machinery, which allows him access to the Internet.

61-year-old Thomas Victor O'Carroll, an out of work journalist and 67-year-old Michael John De Clare, a retired Anglican minister, were arrested in January 2006 after the Met's Paedophile Unit conducted a series of co-ordinated searches and arrests.

O'Carroll is a high-profile activist who has campaigned to legitimise certain aspects of paedophilia and was the chairman of the now defunct Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) in the UK. He has latterly been a member of the International Paedophile Child Emancipation forum (IPCE).

The purpose of IPCE is to promote 'scholarly discussion' with the aim of changing legislation to decriminalise aspects of child abuse. The operation also disrupted IPCE, whose members are predominantly in mainland Europe, but also extend around the globe.

The arrests of O'Carroll and Studdert were the result of a lengthy covert operation by the Met's Paedophile Unit, codenamed Glenlivet, which commenced in the summer of 2002. In the summer of 2005, O'Carroll travelled from his then home in Shildon, County Durham to visit Studdert, an associate who was at that time living in Hindhead, Surrey.

O'Carroll collected a cache of indecent material of children from Studdert, which he had left there for safekeeping, and then drove to another part of the country to give the material to another associate. Unbeknown to O'Carroll, the other associate was an undercover police officer.

During the arrest phase of the operation, a search of Studdert's extensive country home, and some 17 acres of grounds, uncovered two highly sophisticated hidden compartments within his bathroom One was hidden behind a false wall by the bath and the other was hidden in the eves of the house and accessed by a secret door opposite the toilet. The 'hides' contained a massive hoard of indecent images of children, believed to be his lifetime's collection, with images from the 1950's to modern day in a variety of formats.

The formats included videos, photographic slides, cine films, photographs, magazines and photographic negatives. In terms of formats it was the widest ranging personal collection of abusive material known to the Metropolitan Police Service ever attributed to one person.

On 21 September 2006, O'Carroll pleaded guilty to three charges and Studdert pleaded guilty to twenty-six charges of possession, making and distribution of indecent images of children and both appeared at court today in custody.

The Senior Investigating Officer on the case, Acting Detective Chief Inspector Neil Thompson of the Met's Paedophile Unit said:

"The guilty pleas of O'Carroll and Studdert are an example of how patience, tenacity and the commitment of the Met's Paedophile Unit paid dividends in this investigation. O'Carroll and Studdert posed a risk to children both in the UK and abroad and today's sentencing will ensure that further children are safeguarded against such prolific paedophiles."

A police "sting"?

I can think of few police investigations which are more prima facie laudable than this one.

To be specific, the material seized is not "child pornography", a wholly misleading and inappropriate term. The material seized represented a lifetime of abuse of hundreds, possibly thousands of children:

During the arrest phase of the operation, a search of Studdert's extensive country home, and some 17 acres of grounds, uncovered two highly sophisticated hidden compartments within his bathroom One was hidden behind a false wall by the bath and the other was hidden in the eves of the house and accessed by a secret door opposite the toilet. The 'hides' contained a massive hoard of indecent images of children, believed to be his lifetime's collection, with images from the 1950's to modern day in a variety of formats.

The formats included videos, photographic slides, cine films, photographs, magazines and photographic negatives. In terms of formats it was the widest ranging personal collection of abusive material known to the Metropolitan Police Service ever attributed to one person.

The Guardian allows Henley to present O'Carroll and the pro-paedophile advocates as legitimate researchers...

NEVER ENDING SHAME.

I note, with a complete absence of surprise, that O'Carroll's partner in crime was, yet again, a man of the cloth.