The BBC has obtained a secret list containing the names of more than 300 individuals who publicly called for the legalisation of sex with children during the 1970s. The list belonged to an organisation called Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), whose leaders attempted to align with feminist, anti-racist, and gay rights movements to further their cause. Four years old, they argued, was an age at which most children could give consent. Most members were from the UK, but there are also details of individuals from western Europe, Australia, and the US. A small number of those named may still have contact with children through paid work or volunteering.
The Metropolitan Police had the list for about 20 years during the late 1970s and had spread them across several dozen pages. The typed list includes 316 names with nearly all men, and most have included their addresses. This BBC-exclusive leaked list came via Peter McKelvie, a former senior social worker who handed over a shopping bag full of historical documents, internal memos, old newspaper cuttings and letters spanning three decades. The former officer who handed the list, Dave Flanagan, believed the list might have originated from police raids in the late 1970s.
The BBC team searched for the names in media archives, crime reports, and the death register listings for the past 50 years and found records for 45% of the individuals on the list. Half of them were convicted or cautioned for sexual offenses against children, while the remaining individuals did not have a criminal conviction that the BBC has been able to find. Nonetheless, they are part of more than 70 individuals on the list deemed in a profession involving contact with minors. This included teachers, social workers, youth workers, sports coaches, doctors, clerics, lay preachers, and military officers.
On Monday, Home Secretary Yvette Cooper mentioned that those who cover up or fail to report child sexual abuse could face professional or criminal sanctions under a new offense that will be launched this year. In a statement, Det Supt Nicola Franklin of the Met’s Central Specialist Command said that the police would still investigate cases that have sufficient evidence, even if they have existed for a while, as paedophilia is an abhorrent crime. The Independent Inquiry Child Sexual Abuse (IICSA) was formed in response to concerns that some organisations had not protected children
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