Lord Justice Fulford was named as an adviser to the Queen last year
A top judge campaigned to support a paedophile group that tried to legalise sex with children, a newspaper claims.
The Mail on Sunday said Lord Justice Fulford was a founder member of a campaign to defend the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE)., external
The judge told the BBC he had “no memory” of this, but had in the 1970s been involved with a civil liberties group to which PIE was affiliated.
He said he had never supported PIE and child abuse was “wholly wrong”.
PIE founder Tom O’Carroll’s presence at NCCL meetings left Lord Justice Fulford feeling “extremely uncomfortable”
The Daily Mail has run a series of articles questioning the links between PIE and civil liberties group the National Council for Civil Liberties during the 1970s and early 1980s.
PIE had called for greater tolerance and paedophile “rights” and campaigned for a lowering of the age of consent to 10.
Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman, her husband and fellow Labour MP Jack Dromey and former Labour health secretary Patricia Hewitt were all prominent figures in the NCCL, which granted PIE affiliate status in 1975.
Ms Hewitt has apologised for having “got it wrong”, while Mr Dromey has accused the Daily Mail of “dirty, gutter journalism”. Ms Harman has said she “regrets” the links between the two groups but she has “nothing to apologise for”.
‘Very sorry’
The Mail on Sunday said its investigation had found that Lord Justice Fulford, a member of the Privy Council, was a founder member of a campaign set up to defend PIE against criminal charges.
The newspaper also claimed he:
- Planned demonstrations outside courts where defendants were on trial
- Wrote an article claiming PIE was a way for paedophiles to “make friends and offer each other mutual support”
- Sought help with the campaign from future Labour minister Ms Hewitt, then in charge of the NCCL
- Attended meetings with PIE founder Tom O’Carroll, who was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison in 2006 for distributing child abuse images.
- Was praised by PIE for “coming to its defence”
In a statement, Lord Justice Fulford said he had been “briefly involved” with the NCCL and the Campaign for Homosexual Equality, among other civil liberty campaign groups.
Read More – Lord Justice Fulford backed paedophile campaign, paper claims [Article From 9/3/14]
