Margaret Hodge: Anti-paedophile campaigner?

An Islington Gazette cutting from November 1983 shows that former Islington Council leader Margaret Hodge signed a petition to ban the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), an organisation that wanted to lower the age of consent to 4 years old.

Mrs Hodge’s anti-paedophile stance must have been the cause of constant arguments, since her husband, Henry Hodge, and her close friends Harriet Harman and Jack Dromey, were all senior officials of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL), which was affiliated to the Paedophile Information Exchange.

Although Margaret Hodge was well aware of PIE’s activities, she says she was unaware that paedophiles wanted to work with children. During her time as leader (1982-1992), every one of Islington’s children’s homes was infiltrated by paedophiles.

She recently tried to explain her total failure to protect children in care from paedophile rings, prostitution, and trafficking by saying “All that happened when we didn’t really understand child abuse in the way that we understand it now. This was the early 90s … It was only beginning to emerge that paedophiles were working with children, in children’s homes and elsewhere”. (Guardian 27/04/13)

It’s strange that she doesn’t remember two major incidents before the 90s which proved that paedophiles were working with children in Islington children’s homes.

1983: Islington care worker John Picton was charged with kidnapping a 13 year old boy from a children’s home

1986: Former Islington care worker Abraham Jacob was jailed for running a child prostitution racket.

This church sex pervert abuses lad and doesn’t go to prison (15.06.93)

The Sun, 15th June 1993

No place like home (31.05.90)

Islington Gazette, 31st May 1990

Booze probe kids’ home closed (12.02.88)

Islington Gazette, 12th February 1988

Two boys were charged with the rape of a 13 year old girl with “the apparent acquiescence” of Islington care workers

Two fifteen year old boys were charged with the rape of a thirteen year old girl which happened “with the apparent acquiescence of staff” at Islington Council’s Conewood Street Assessment Centre. When the case came to court, the jury accepted their not guilty plea to the rape charge but found them guilty of sexual intercourse with a girl under the age of 16.

An internal investigation found no wrongdoing by staff, although Islington’s internal investigations never found any wrongdoing by staff.

John Picton, who kidnapped a 13 year old boy from Islington’s Elwood Street home in 1983, formerly worked at Conewood Street. And 14 year old Jason Swift stayed at Conewood Street in the months leading up to his death.

All this happened while Margaret Hodge was leader of Islington Council (1982-1992).

Margaret Hodge recently tried to explain her total failure to protect children in care from paedophile rings, prostitution, and trafficking by saying “All that happened when we didn’t really understand child abuse in the way that we understand it now. This was the early 90s … It was only beginning to emerge that paedophiles were working with children, in children’s homes and elsewhere”. (Guardian 27/04/13)

Islington Gazette, 22nd March 1990

Islington Gazette, 29th March 1990

Islington Gazette, 5th April 1990

Islington care worker was charged with ‘unlawfully taking a 13 year old boy’

These two cuttings follow on from ‘Islington care worker abducted 13 year old boy and took him to France‘ – which has now been updated. I still don’t have any information on the outcome of the trial.

Islington Gazette, 2nd December 1983

Islington Gazette, 16th December 1983

Fury over gay club’s ‘offer’ (22.02.85)

Islington Gazette, 22nd February 1985

Mistakes from the past aren’t down to us (21.6.86)

Islington Gazette, 21st June 1986

Police group in Freemasons row (22.06.89)

Islington Gazette, 22nd June 1989

The man who attacked Geoffrey Dickens over Islington ‘child brothels’ claims was a paedophile activist

In 1986, the backbench MP Geoffrey Dickens reported allegations of ‘child brothels’ on a council estate in the London Borough of Islington. He said that he had received a letter and a tape recording from a resident of the Elthorne Estate claiming that adults on the estate were organising ‘wide-scale’ child abuse involving 40 children, some as young as seven.

Dickens was attacked by the MP for Islington North, Jeremy Corbyn, who said he was “getting cheap publicity at the expense of innocent children”. An Islington councillor called Alan Clinton defended the “decency” of Elthorne tenants, and the Islington Gazette ran a story claiming that the residents were furious about the “slur”. (Islington Gazette 21/02/86)

Dickens was unrepentant, and said he had more evidence and was more certain than ever about the truth of his allegations. (Social Work Today 24/02/86)

The folowing week the Islington Gazette published a letter attacking Geoffrey Dickens. It was from Roger Moody, of Liverpool Road, London N1 (Islington).

Although he doesn’t declare it in his letter, Roger Moody was a prominent ‘paedophile activist’ and author of a book called Indecent Assault (1980) which defended paedophilia. From the back page:

“In 1977, libertarian journalist and activist Roger Moody was arraigned on four charges of indecent assault and attempted buggery with a 10-year-old boy friend. This book traces the course of this case, from the initial police raid to a dramatic acquittal at the Old Bailey in March 1979.

By using extracts from a diary he kept over this two-year period, Roger Moody strikingly focusses the ambivalence he felt as someone charged with a “crime” he didn’t commit, but nonetheless doesn’t consider criminal.

But this book is only incidentally a defence of paedophilia. Rather it is an examination of the way in which patriarchal institutions – especially the police and courts – deny reciprocal, non-ageist relationships in order to perpetuate their own power”