'Ten Politicians Named' In Calls To Abuse Line

Who Were Paedophile Group PIE?

Updated: 1:43pm UK, Tuesday 25 February 2014

A campaign group for lowering the age of consent, a networking group for paedophiles and the publisher of newsletters giving easy access to child porn.

The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) started life in 1974 as a splinter group - or special interest group - of a Scottish gay rights movement.

It quickly moved to London because that was where the greatest interest in its activities lay and by 1975 had been accepted as an "affiliate" group by the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL).

Run by paedophiles who had "come out" and openly lobbied for child sex to be legalised, the group also provided a means for the like-minded to contact each other.

It also published regular newsletters - which became the now-defunct magazine Magpie, which published pictures of children, paedophilia "jokes", and also assisted paedophiles to obtain child pornography.

The group won support among left-wing groups largely by allying itself with the battle for gay rights and academia.

The freelance journalist Eileen Fairweather, who worked for the feminist magazine, Spare Rib, and who went on to expose abuse in Islington children's homes wrote recently for The Daily Telegraph: "PIE fooled so many on the Left, within academia and in social work, because they adroitly hijacked the language of liberation.

"Little was known then or discussed about the extent or horror of child abuse. PIE members also portrayed themselves as 'child lovers', benign uncle figures who offered tenderness, not rape.

"They claimed that paedophiles, like women, gay men and children, were 'oppressed by the patriarchy'. Therefore we should all make common cause. Spare Rib, to its credit, refused to fall for this self-serving guff. But nor did we condemn it."

In 1975, PIE submitted a 17-page document to the Home Office Criminal Law Revision Committee lobbying for no age of consent.

During this time PIE sent a leaflet to MPs which said: "Paedophiles are ordinary, decent, sensible human beings, no more sexually depraved than yourself, and with a capacity for loving and helping children which is at present being repressed."

In 1977 PIE chairman Tom O'Carroll was allowed to make a speech at the spring conference of the NCCL, giving the group further legitimacy.

In late 2013, the Home Office announced an inquiry into claims that PIE was being inadvertently financed by the Labour administration of the time through grants.

In 1980 O'Carroll published "Paedophilia: the radical case" which argued for "a climate in which children come to view all consensual sex, including consensual paedophilia, positively and without guilt may be necessary for the welfare of everyone".

O'Carroll moved that a relationship between adults and children could proceed on a basis of signals being interpreted saying " … 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".

By 1981 O'Carroll had been jailed for the contact advertisements in PIE publications offering to put people in touch with child pornography distributors.

In 1984 the group was disbanded and in the years that followed a number of its senior members were sentenced for paedophilia offences.

In 2006 the last of the leading PIE associates was jailed. David Joy was sentenced to 18 months after 1,129 of the worst level of child pornography images were found at his Leicestershire home. The images were of children aged between one and 13.

The judge warned him that he may never be eligible for parole because of his commitment to paedophilia.

He said: "It's clear that you hold firmly to a set of beliefs involving sexual activity with adults and children.

"Those beliefs are wholly in variance to the views held by most members of society, views that most of society would find abhorrent."

Many in 2014 find it hard to believe that such a group existed openly but as the Tory MP Nadine Dorries recently pointed out in a tweet: "In 70's following legalisation of homosexuality (rightly) and a decade of 'free love' organisations like PIE genuinely thought they were next."

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Pistorius Trial Adjourned As Defence Closes Case

Oscar Pistorius' defence has wrapped up its case, with the trial due to resume with closing arguments on August 7.

The court heard that the prosecution will file its "heads of argument" on July 30.

The defence will file on August 4.

The statements will then be presented in court on August 7 and 8.

The trial was adjourned a day after the last defence witness completed his testimony.

Professor Wayne Derman, a doctor for the South African Paralympic team, was quizzed over Pistorius' ability to move around on his stumps.

The prosecution attempted to show Prof Derman had overstated the athlete's lack of mobility without prostheses.

The defence argues that Pistorius' limited mobility and mental vulnerability led him to shoot his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp out of fear that she was an intruder.

Not explicitly mentioned in court was the controversy over an Australian TV broadcaster's decision to air a video showing Oscar Pistorius re-enacting the night of the shooting.

The material was filmed to help the Paralympian's defence team build their case.

It shows Pistorius, wearing a vest and shorts, running without his prosthetic legs with his fist clenched as if holding a gun.

Pistorius, who is on trial for premeditated murder, denies deliberately killing Reeva Steenkamp.

He faces between 25 years and life in prison if found guilty.

More follows...

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Pistorius At Court As Trial Set To Resume

Oscar Pistorius has arrived at court on a day that could be dominated by arguments over video footage broadcast in Australia.

The footage, commissioned by defence lawyers, shows the athlete re-enacting the night he shot Reeva Steenkamp.

The day started with Judge Thokozile Masipa lifting the ban on publishing the psycologist's reports on the defendent's mental health - notes that have already been widely reported. 

The questioning of Professor Wayne Derman, the doctor for the South African Paralympic team, then resumed as the defence case draws to a conclusion.

Professor Derman testified last week that Pistorius was vulnerable, stressed and would have been unable to flee because of disability.

Pistorius, who is on trial for premeditated murder, denies deliberately killing his girlfriend, claiming he mistook her for an intruder.

He faces between 25 years and life in prison if found guilty.

More follows...

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Independent Review Into Child Sex Abuse Claims

Claims of a child sex abuse ring operating at some of the country's most powerful institutions in the 1980s will be investigated, George Osborne has said.

The Chancellor announced there would be an "independent and authoritative" review of the claims as pressure over allegations of a paedophile-ring operating in Westminster intensified.

Mr Osborne said the investigation needed to "get to the truth" behind the widespread claims of child sex abuse and Home Secretary Theresa May would be announcing the details of the review in a statement later on Monday.

It comes after the former Conservative cabinet minister, Lord Tebbit, said there may have been a political cover-up of allegations in the 1980s to "protect the establishment".

A Home Office investigation found 114 official files relating to claims of child abuse by politicians have been lost or destroyed.

The allegations include claims of abuse by late Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith

These files are in addition to a dossier alleging child abuse involving around eight powerful and famous figures at Westminster in the 1980s that is also missing, handed to the Home Office by the late Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983.

The allegations include claims of abuse by the late Liberal MP Sir Cyril Smith and alleged paedophile activity at parties attended by politicians at the Elm Guest House in Barnes, southwest London.

Mrs May is expected to will announce an investigation into who knew what and when and why the allegations were missed, overlooked or ignored by public bodies.

It has been suggested that a panel of experts will take evidence from members of the public as part of the investigation but it will stop short of a full public inquiry.

Mr Osborne told the Radio 4 Today programme: "The best approach to this is to find an independent and authoritative way to

Lord Tebbit believes an establishment cover-up is possible

investigate it. The Home Secretary is going to be setting out to the House of Commons in just a few hours' time the approach we are going to take.

"But people can be absolutely clear, these are very, very serious matters, we take them very seriously, we want to get to the truth and nothing but the truth, and we will do it in an independent and authoritative way."

A Home Office spokesman said Mrs May's statement would address to key concerns: "First, the Home Office's response in the 1980s to papers containing allegations of child abuse.

"And second, the wider issue of whether public bodies and other institutions have taken seriously their duty of care towards children."

Lord Tebbit, who served in a series of senior ministerial posts under Margaret Thatcher, said the instinct at the time was to protect "the system" and not delve too deeply into uncomfortable allegations.

"At that time I think most people would have thought that the establishment, the system, was to be protected and if a few things had gone wrong here and there that it was more important to protect the system than to delve too far into it.

"That view, I think, was wrong then and it is spectacularly shown to be wrong because the abuses have grown," he told BBC1's The Andrew Marr Show.

Asked if he thought there had been a "big political cover-up" at the time, he said: "I think there may well have been."

Prime Minister David Cameron has ordered an internal review at the Home Office to "find answers" about the missing files.

But Labour says the review is not enough and is calling for a full-scale public inquiry, led by independent experts, to restore public confidence.

The internal review will be led by the Home Office's top civil servant Mark Sedwill.

Home Affairs Select Committee chair Keith Vaz has asked Mr Sedwill to appear before the committee on Tuesday to answer questions.

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Leon Brittan 'Questioned Over Rape Claim'

Former home secretary Leon Brittan was questioned by police last month over a historical allegation of rape, according to reports.

The Independent on Sunday said the 74-year-old Conservative peer was interviewed by detectives under caution about the claim but was not arrested.

Lord Brittan is understood to have strongly denied the claims.

At the time of the alleged incident, Lord Brittan was not an MP after unsuccessfully contesting the North Kensington seat in 1966.

Last night, a Metropolitan Police spokesman confirmed an allegation of rape had been made against a man in his seventies over an incident in 1967.

He said: "In late 2012, a woman alleged to the Metropolitan Police Service that she was raped by a man in 1967 at an address in London.

"The woman was over the age of 18 at the time of the incident.

"The allegation is being investigated by officers from the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command.

"In June 2014, a man aged in his 70s was interviewed under caution by appointment at a central London location in connection with the allegation.

"He was not arrested. Enquiries continue."

Lord Brittan was home secretary in Margaret Thatcher's Conservative government between 1983 and 1985.

The police interview is said to have taken place at the London offices of law firm Mishcon de Reya.

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Westminster Abuse Claims Probe: 114 Files Lost

The Home Office has admitted that more than 100 official files relating to allegations of historical child abuse by politicians have been lost or destroyed.

The department's permanent secretary, Mark Sedwill, said the documents - which related to a 20-year period between 1979 and 1999 - were "presumed destroyed, missing or not found".

The disclosure came as Mr Sedwill said he will appoint a senior legal figure to assess the Home Office's handling of a dossier alleging historical child abuse involving powerful and famous figures at Westminster in the 1980s.

Shamed children's entertainer Jimmy Savile and disgraced MP Cyril Smith are two names which are said to be contained in the dossier, which the Home Office says is also missing.

The Home Office disclosed that 114 files have vanished without a trace

It follows the Prime Minister's call for him to establish what happened to the file which was handed to the then home secretary Leon (now Lord) Brittan by Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens in 1983.

Lord Brittan admitted he had received the dossier and passed it on to officials, but no action was ever taken.

In a letter to the chairman of the Commons Home Affairs Committee, Mr Sedwill revealed that while the original review had identified 527 potentially relevant files which had been retained, there were a further 114 files which could not be located.

The Prime Minister is under pressure to launch a full public inquiry

He said that the investigation had not found a single dossier from Mr Dickens, but several sets of correspondence over a number of years to a number of home secretaries containing claims of sexual offences.

However he said that the review had found no record of specific allegations by Mr Dickens of child sex abuse by senior figures.

"Like any other citizen, I am horrified by what we have learnt in the past couple of years about the systematic abuse of children and vulnerable adults by prominent public figures, and the state's failure to protect them," he wrote.

"Some have been brought to justice and I hope that the police investigations now under way across the country are equally successful. The Home Office has and will co-operate fully with any police inquiry."

Earlier, David Cameron faced criticism for an "inadequate" investigation into what happened to the dossier.

Labour MP Simon Danczuk, whose campaign raised the issue of what happened to the Dickens' file at a Commons Home Affairs Committee hearing, said there needed to be a public inquiry.

He told Sky News: "The public are very clearly concerned and they won't be satisfied with another review by Home Office officials.

"Reviews like this often prove to be whitewashes.

"The Prime Minister should establish an over-arching review led by child protection experts to draw together the results from all these different case, investigations and institutional inquiries."

Allegations of sex abuse have been made against the late Cyril Smith

Labour leader Ed Miliband has told Sky News that as well as a "thorough review" of what happened at the Home Office, there must also be a wider look at child protection.

The Met Police said in a statement: "We are currently assessing information and conducting a number of investigations under Operation Fairbank.

"Any material submitted to us, historic or current, is reviewed to establish if it is relevant to these."

Calls for more to be done about allegations of child sex abuse by politicians have increased since the 2010 death of Liberal Democrat MP Cyril Smith, who was subsequently said to have been a paedophile.

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Rolf Harris Visited Broadmoor With Jimmy Savile

The Fall Of One Of Britain's Best-Loved Stars

Updated: 6:09pm UK, Monday 30 June 2014

By Nick Pisa, Sky News Reporter

Despite being born in Australia, Rolf Harris' lengthy career in show business, spanning almost six decades, has ensured he is one of Britain's best-known and, until now, best-loved stars.

From his humble beginnings as a swimming champion in his native Western Australia, he moved to London in 1952 after deciding to abandon a teaching career and study art instead.

Within weeks he was singing in ex-pat clubs and two years after stepping off a liner, he signed a contract with the BBC which marked the start of a lengthy association with the broadcaster.

Artist, singer-songwriter and TV star, his legendary career earned him an MBE, OBE and CBE and Australian honours as well.

He was given a BAFTA fellowship, painted a portrait of the Queen and has met other members of the royal family countless times.

Harris also made numerous TV commercials and appeared at Glastonbury six times - opening the event in 2010 - and singing in front of a crowd of almost 100,000.

Countless generations of children and adults know him through iconic programmes from the 70s, 80s and 90s, such as The Rolf Harris Show, Rolf Harris Cartoon Time, Animal Hospital and Rolf On Art.

His wife of 56 years, Alwen, and daughter Bindi, 49, supported him in court throughout the seven-week trial, although only Bindi was called to give evidence in the case.

She described how she wanted to ''stab herself with forks'' after discovering Harris had been having a relationship with her best friend, who was the subject of seven of the charges.

In his 2001 autobiography, titled after his catchphrase "Can You Tell What It Is Yet", there is a telling passage in which he explained his feelings about his family.

He wrote: ''Alwen and Bindi have to come first. It has only been in the last five years that I have realised this. Late, but better than never.''

Telling, because it was in 1997 Harris wrote to the father of Bindi's best friend to tell him of the affair he had been having with his daughter when his own daughter found out.

He also wrote of how, as his career took off in the 60s, he found himself ogling women in backstage dressing rooms set aside for dancers he worked with.

Harris wrote: ''I tried not to watch - or be seen watching - but it wasn't easy, I spent most of my time reading the same page of a book 14 times realising I was holding it upside down.''

It's also clear he had a difficult relationship with his daughter and wife - blaming himself for not being with them as he devoted his time to his career - leaving them a painful second.

In the early 1960s as his career hit the big time, Alwen visited Australia with him and it later emerged she had contemplated suicide, Harris only finding out about it 30 years later when he found her diary.

Harris described how ''the words struck me like hammer blows'' adding that he ''felt terrible and I kicked myself for my selfishness''.

His awards and honours count for nothing and he will now swap his luxury Thames-side home in Berkshire for the cold harsh surroundings of a prison cell, as a convicted sex offender.

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