University investigates PhD student’s internet links with convicted paedophiles (10.09.01)

The Scotsman, 10th September 2001

A PhD student at Glasgow University researching sex between men and boys is being investigated over claims that he was corresponding with convicted paedophiles on the internet.
Richard Yuill, who has completed nearly two years in the sociology department researching sexual relationships between men and boys, will face disciplinary action if it is found that he has misused his position.
His e-mail and web accesses have now been withdrawn.

E-mails that passed between Mr Yuill and members of a paedophile group with contacts all over Europe were intercepted by an academic on the Continent.
They appear to reveal a campaign by a number of highly-educated paedophiles intent on driving down the age of consent in countries all over Europe and promoting acceptance of sexual relationships between adults and youngsters.
Some of Mr Yuill’s correspondents were formerly associated with the Paedophile Information Exchange. PIE was targeted by the police in the UK in the 1980s.
Several now belong to Ipce, once known as the International Paedophile and Child Emancipation group.
Among its members is Tom O’Carroll, former chairman and a founding member of PIE.
He was jailed for two years in 1981 for publishing a magazine encouraging sex with children.
Mr Yuill corresponded regularly with Mr O’Carroll and other Ipce members.
Earlier this year, Glasgow University paid GBP 400 for Yuill to attend a conference at Berlin where he gave a paper and met with other members of the movement.
Mr Yuill could not be contacted at his home in Glasgow.
His supervisor, David Evans, senior lecturer in sociology, said he had been unaware of Mr Yuill’s internet correspondence, or about articles posted on sites used by paedophiles.
But he said he would defend Mr Yuill’s right to carry out his research “no matter society’s attitude to these issues”.
A university spokesperson said yesterday: “The university has taken these allegations very seriously and the secretary of the university court, Mr Dugald Mackie, has ordered a thorough investigation into the way the research has been conducted.
“The inquiry will be carried out by a senior academic from another department. The student’s email and web access has been withdrawn pending the outcome of investigations.”
“The university is making no further comment on this case.”

Thanks to Ian Pace ( ianpace.wordpress.com ) for sending this article

Inquiry into researcher’s links with paedophiles (09.09.01)

Mail on Sunday, 9th September 2001

by Marcello Mega

A LEADING Scots university last night launched an investigation into a PhD student’s links with paedophiles.
Glasgow University executives have seized research student Richard Yuill’s computer after it emerged he was swapping emails with convicted paedophiles.
Yuill, who has almost completed two years’ work researching paedophilia in the sociology department, will face disciplinary action if he has misused his position.
Emails between Yuill and members of a paedophile movement have been intercepted by an academic on the Continent and passed to The Scottish Mail on Sunday.
They reveal an organised campaign to drive down the age of consent across Europe. Many of Yuill’s correspondents were formerly associated with the reviled Paedophile Information Exchange, including Tom O’Carroll, its former chairman.
Amongst the material passed to us is an email to O’Carroll, apparently from Yuill, stating: ‘It will take time to convince the gatekeepers of my bona fide status as researcher (ha ha!).’ Last night Yuill, from Milngavie, near Glasgow, refused to comment when asked about his research work.
A Glasgow University spokesman said: ‘The secretary of the university court, Mr Dugald Mackie, has ordered a thorough investigation into the way research has been conducted.’

 

Thanks to Ian Pace ( ianpace.wordpress.com ) for sending this article

 

Paedophile book earns lecturer’s praise (27.01.81)

The Guardian, 27th January 1981

Cops probe uni paedophile ring (12.01.03)

News of the World, 12th January 2003

COPS have swooped on a suspected paedophile ring at Edinburgh’s Napier University.

They launched an immediate probe after a lecturer was targeted during Operation Ore.

When detectives seized his computer, they found he was circulating images to colleagues.

Disturbingly, the ring is believed to extend to other universities but, as yet, no charges have been brought against any of the staff.

Inquiry into student’s child sex research (10.9.01)

The Herald (Glasgow), 10th September 2001
by Lorna Martin

A POST-GRADUATE student conducting research into sexual relationships between men and boys is under investigation after it emerged that he was corresponding with convicted paedophiles on the internet.

Richard Yuill, who has completed almost two years in Glasgow University’s sociology department, will face disciplinary action if it is found that he misused his position as a researcher.

His e-mail and web access have been withdrawn, although he has not been banned from the university.

Much of the correspondence was conducted with men formerly associated with the reviled Paedophile Information Exchange (Pie). The organisation was targeted by the police in the UK in the 1980s and its members were driven underground.

But several now belong to Ipce, once known as the International Paedophile and Child Emancipation group. The organisation now only refers to itself by the acronym.

One of the e-mails allegedly sent by Mr Yuill said: ‘It will take time to convince the gatekeepers of my bona fide status as researcher (ha ha!)’

A university spokesman yesterday confirmed an investigation had been launched after allegations that a PhD student had misused his position as a researcher.

‘The university has taken these allegations very seriously and the secretary of the university court, Mr Dugald Mackie, has ordered a thorough investigation into the way the research has been conducted.’

The inquiry will be carried out by a senior academic from another department.

Mr Yuill, who lives in Bearsden, near Glasgow, was unavailable for comment yesterday.

The student was conducting research into inter-generational relationships involving men.

Commenting on paedophilia as a research topic, the spokesman said sociologists were interested in researching all aspects of social life.

‘Given that humans have a wide range of sexual tastes and can follow these in situations where they may be regarded as immoral or illegal, sociological research cannot be restricted to practices which the lay person may regard as ‘normal’.

‘In this context, the research topic was approved by the department of sociology on the grounds that it was seen as opening up an important area of research into inter-generational relationships between males which has largely been neglected in the academicliterature.’

Paedophilia in Academia: Donald West, University of Cambridge

Donald West is Emeritus Professor of Clinical Criminology at the University of Cambridge, and a former Director of the Institute of Criminology at the University of Cambridge. (1)

Donald West will have exerted a considerable influence, not only on Criminology students at the University of Cambridge, but also on students from other universities who were exposed to his work. Criminology graduates often go on to careers in the police service, the probation service, and the social work profession, and some go on to work with cases involving child abuse. West’s published work in the field of criminology reveals some deeply disturbing views on child sexual abuse, especially considering his position of authority and influence.

Donald West wrote that child sexual abuse was sometimes “beneficial”, referred to child abusers as “lovers”, and referred to a child being abused by an adult as a “relationship”.

Admittedly, pedophiliac relationships do sometimes seem beneficial. A child may learn much from a consistent and caring adult lover and come to cherish him as a friend long after the period of erotic attachment has passed. (2)

He advises against “over-reacting” by contacting the police in cases of child sexual abuse, and warns that the effects of an investigation are “certainly worse than the effects, if any, of the sexual activity itself”.

They may come to feel guilty, perhaps because of the sordid or secretive circumstances of the affair, or from fear of the consequences of detection. This may in turn interfere with the development of relationships with peers. In the absence of reliable research information as to the extent and frequency of these complications, it is difficult to know what to advise when an actual or suspected pedophiliac relationship comes to the attention of a parent, teacher or other concerned individual. The usual tendency is to over-react. The effects of anxious probing by parents, followed by police interrogations, court proceedings and the possible imprisonment of someone to whom the child has become much attached, are certainly worse than the effects, if any, of the sexual activity itself. (3)

In fact, West is against the criminal prosecution of child sexual abuse no matter how young the victim, as long as the abuse is “consensual”, and voiced his agreement with the Dutch paedophile activist Edward Brongersma.

I happen to agree that the criminal prosecution of sexual acts is inappropriate, whatever the age of the participants. (4)

West reveals his attitude to abused children by using inverted commas around the word ‘victim’:

Case studies and surveys suggest that, in general, “victims” of pederasts do not become homosexual. (5)

He portrays child victims as instigating the abuse, referring to “casual sexual indulgence” and, in reference to a headmaster sexually abusing boys in his care, talks of the boys “light-heartedly taking advantage of the opportunities presented”.

More commonly, homosexual contacts wiith adults are a matter of rather casual sexual indulgence as far as the boys are concerned, an extension of the homosexual curiosity and eroticism that is, as Langfeldt points out, so commonplace among boys. Such was the case when a patient of mine was implicated in a public scandal. When inquiries were made it emerged that a high proportion of the boys at the school knew all about the sexual interests of their headmaster and one of his assistants and many of them had light-heartedly taken advantage of the opportunities presented. The one boy in the group who was really deeply involved in a pedophile relationship, to the extent of being taken on holiday by his lover and introduced as an adopted son, was the one who, perhaps wisely, steadfastly refused to admit any physical sex acts and so avoided having to give evidence in connection with the ensuing prosecution. (6)

He downplays the effects of institutional sexual abuse in children’s homes and schools, saying it was ‘unwise to overdramatize – many boys have not taken the behaviour at all seriously or felt the need to make an official complaint’ (7)

West repeatedly refers to child sexual abuse as being consensual.

Although sexual offences with children are predominantly non-violent and often in effect consensual… (8)

He claims that the majority of child sexual abuse is characterised by “affectionate playfulness and willing participation” and talks of a father abusing his child as being a “completely mutual relationship”.

Although most sexual contacts between adults and children are seemingly characterized by affectionate playfulness and willing participation, rather than by fear or coercion, the opposite extreme, however rare, cannot be forgotten. (9)

The kind of pedophiliac relationships that are prosecuted as incest range from completely mutual relationships through varying degrees of reluctant acquiescence… (10)

West praises and defends a notorious Australian child abuser called Clarence Osborne, and apportions responsibility to his child victims who “returned again and again” to their abuser.

Because he was so friendly, confident, persuasive, and not in the least coercive, literally thousands of boys responded to his overtures and many found the experiences sufficiently interesting and enjoyable to return again and again. Indeed, Osborne noted that if he wanted to discourage a boy from repeated visits all he had to do was discontinue their sex games…Osborne was lambasted in the press, labelled a monster and accused unjustly of seducing pre-pubertal children and leading boys into prostitution. In reality, his activities came closer to the Greek love ideal to which many pederasts claim to aspire, namely the befriending of a youth by a loving and understanding older man who acts as guide and patron and role model. (11)

As late as 1987, when more evidence had been published about the huge damage caused by child sexual abuse, West was still referring to child abusers as “child lovers”, described abuse as “mutually pleasurable experiences”, and talked of paedophiles seeking out “willing partners…much as ordinary lovers do”.

It has already been emphasised that the vast majoroty of men who are sexually attracted to children ae non-violent in their approaches. Signs of fear or annoyance on the child’s part would normally make them desist. After all, child lovers are seeking, however inapropriately, an affectionate response and a mutually pleasurable experience. Paedophiles often develop great sensitivity to children’s reactions and are able to select, much as ordinary lovers do, those who are likely to prove willing partners. (12)

West criticises the law for criminalising adults who engage in “consensual” child sexual abuse, and suggests that the law should be changed to fix an age below which it would be assumed the child did not consent – “unless the contrary could be proved”. It appears the age he had in mind was very low indeed, as he gives the examples of “very young infants, even babies” who would not be expected “to appreciate fully what is happening or to formulate a complaint”.

It is universally agreed that the criminal law should protect persons of all ages from unwanted sexual intrusion. Controversy arises over the criminalisation of consensual acts as “sexual assaults”. This creates a category of victimless crimes, justified on the grounds that children must be protected from giving way to their own sexual inclinations or from responding to the seductive approaches of others. Professor Brian Hogan (1978) identified the crucial issue when he questioned whether the basic assumption behind the existing law, namely that the young are harmed by sexual experience, can be proved. Libertarian principles suggest the abolition of a legal fiction of an age of consent and the introduction of a requirement to have a complaining victim before a criminal charge can be brought, Objections to this simple solution are substantial, if not completely convincing. Assaulted children are sometimes very young infants, even babies, and so not in a position to appreciate fully what is happening or to formulate a complaint. To meet this, the law could fix some age below which it would be assumed, unless the contrary could be proved, that the child did not consent. (13)

This is uncannily similar to the Paedophile Information Exchange’s 1975 submission to the Home Office Criminal Law Revision Committee.(14) The Paedophile Information Exchange campaigned for the age of consent to be reduced to 4 years old, and, like West, viewed children as ‘willing partners’ who could consent to sex with an adult.

Donald West helped Tom O’Carroll, the former chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange, with his book, Paedophilia: The Radical Case, which set out to normalise child sexual abuse. O’Carroll gave West his “heartfelt thanks” in the introduction. (15)

The Paedophile Information Exchange set out their plans to make child sexual abuse ‘acceptable’ in the form of a list of aims. Number one on the list was “to clear away the myths connected with paedophilia by various means, including the making public of scientific, sociological and similar information”. They obviously realised the importance of influential academics such as Professor Donald West and Dr Ken Plummer “clearing away myths” surrounding child sexual abuse. (16)

In 2006 Tom O’Carroll was convicted for distributing a collection of 50,000 images and films of child abuse. He was arrested after undercover police infiltrated a group known as the International Paedophile Child Emancipation Group and its subsidiary, Gentlemen with an Interesting Name. “According to police O’Carroll saw the groups as a base for an “international secret society” of “academic” child abusers…Children, mainly boys and some as young as six, had been filmed and photographed being raped and tortured”. (17)

Unbelievably, Donald West continued his association with O’Carroll despite the latter’s conviction for distributing films of 6 year old boys being raped and tortured, and in 2011 helped promote O’Carroll’s book about ‘Michael Jackson’s love of boys’. “Donald West, emeritus professor of clinical criminology at Cambridge University, wrote that the author’s “vivid and insightful commentary is a joy to read” (18)

West used the ‘research’ of Peter Righton, who was later exposed as being a Paedophile Information Exchange member and being part of a network of paedophiles who abused boys in children’s homes and schools across the UK. West quotes Righton saying that “most” children benefit from being sexually abused: “men had shown a lasting devotion, boys expressed appreciation for the consideration and attention they had received which they rarely got in their own homes and most felt they benefited’. (19)

In University contracts there is usually a clause about ‘not bringing the University into any disrepute’. The University also has a duty of care to the students.

It is time that the University of Cambridge’s Vice Chancellor and Governors addressed these issues with Professor West who should surely be asked to apologise for the pro-paedophile views he expressed so forcefully in the above writings.

The essays quoted above iare dated and it’s possible that Professor West may have altered his views since then, as there is much more academic material available now, as well as many first hand accounts from survivors which explain the hugely damaging long term effects of child sexual abuse.

Questions for the Vice Chancellor of University of Cambridge

– Do you understand that Professor West’s views as expressed in the above texts could be said to bring the University into disrepute?

– If these same views have been presented to students at your University through Professor West’s teaching and writing, do you consider that this has demonstrated a breach of the University’s duty of care towards its students?

– Will you facilitate Professor West in making a formal apology to victims and survivors of child sexual crime for the views he expressed in his writings as cited above?

– Will you provide a statement that Professor West’s teaching, writing and research does not in any way currently promote pro-paedophile perspectives?

– I will publish the Vice Chancellor’s response on this website.

Questions for Professor Donald West

– Do you still hold the same views on paedophilia that are expressed in the essays quoted here?

– If you do still hold these views, does your teaching reflect these views?

– If your views have changed, have you written anything which clarifies your position? I’ll happily publish it on this website.

– If you do still hold these views, what do you say to child victims and survivors who may have been abused by those students influenced by your teachings? I’ll happily publish an apology on this website to the victims, survivors and students.

See also:

Paedophilia in Academia: Dr Ken Plummer, University of Essex

Paedophilia in Academia: Len Davis, Brunel University

References

(1) http://www.crim.cam.ac.uk/people/emeritus/donald_west/

(2) p.255, Adult Sexual Interest in Children: Implications for Social Control, by D.J. West (Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England), from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, Academic Press, 1981

(3) p.255-256, Adult Sexual Interest in Children: Implications for Social Control, by D.J. West (Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England), from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, Academic Press, 1981

(4) Commentary by D.J. West to The Meaning of ‘Indecency’ with Respect to Moral Offences Involving Children, by Edward Brongersma, British Journal of Criminology, Vol. 20 No. 1 Jan. 1980

(5) p.256, Adult Sexual Interest in Children: Implications for Social Control, by D.J. West (Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England), from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, Academic Press, 1981

(6) p.257, Adult Sexual Interest in Children: Implications for Social Control, by D.J. West (Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England), from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, Academic Press, 1981

(7) p.123,Children’s Sexual Encounters with Adults: A Scientific Study by CK Li, DJ West & TP Woodhouse, Prometheus Books

(8) p.259, Adult Sexual Interest in Children: Implications for Social Control, by D.J. West (Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England), from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, Academic Press, 1981

(9) p.261, Adult Sexual Interest in Children: Implications for Social Control, by D.J. West (Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England), from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, Academic Press, 1981

(10) p.262, Adult Sexual Interest in Children: Implications for Social Control, by D.J. West (Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England), from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, Academic Press, 1981

(11) p.62, Sexual Crimes and Confrontations, by D.J. West, Gower Publishing Company Limited, 1987

(12) p.58, Sexual Crimes and Confrontations, by D.J. West, Gower Publishing Company Limited, 1987

(13) p.266, Adult Sexual Interest in Children: Implications for Social Control, by D.J. West (Institute of Criminology, Cambridge, England), from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, Academic Press, 1981

(14) https://spotlightonabuse.wordpress.com/2013/04/18/the-pie-manifesto/

(15) p.12, Paedophilia: The Radical Case by Tom O’Carroll, Peter Owen Limited, 1980

(16) p.209, Paedophilia: The Radical Case by Tom O’Carroll, Peter Owen Limited, 1980

(17) http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/coventry_warwickshire/6196811.stm

(18) http://www.coventrytelegraph.net/news/coventry-news/coventry-telegraph-letters-article-jackson-3044249

(19) p.10, Children’s Sexual Encounters with Adults: A Scientific Study by CK Li, DJ West & TP Woodhouse, Prometheus Books

Paedophilia in Academia: Len Davis, Brunel University

Len Davis was a lecturer in social work at Brunel University, and a regular contributor to Social Work Today, the in-house journal of the British Association of Social Workers (BASW) and the Residential Care Association (RCA). He edited and wrote for the magazine’s In Residence column which concentrated on residential care. Another In Residence writer was Peter Righton, who was later exposed as being part of a network of paedophiles who abused boys in schools and children’s homes across the UK. This Social Work Today page from February 1985 pictures Righton and Davis as part of the In Residence team.

Peter Righton used one of his In Residence columns, entitled Sex and the Residential Social Worker, to call for more tolerance of ‘relationships’ (i.e. sexual abuse) between adult residential care workers and child residents. With the benefit of hindsight, it appears that the article may have been designed to encourage ‘like-minded individuals’ to get in touch with Righton, which could have played a part in enabling him to form a national network of paedophiles with access to vulnerable children. In that column, Righton quotes Len Davis:

“This picture is not presented as an argument in favour of unbridled licence. It is rather a plea against the common view that an unofficial shared orgasm – whether between two residents, between a resident and a friend outside the unit, or even between a resident and a member of staff – is the worst disaster that can befall a residential establishment. It is a plea against the squeamish prurience that would bring obloquy, and even dismissal, on the head of a residential worker who, on request, masturbates a young person too severely handicapped to do the job for himself, (for an instance of this, see Len Davis’s article, Touch, Sexuality and Power in Residential Settings in The British Journal of Social Work, Vol 5, No 4).” (1)

Len Davis’s expertise on the subject of ‘touch’ in residential settings was called upon to help a residential care worker walk free after being accused of sexually abusing boys in a Surbiton children’s home in 1978. This was just one of a number of court cases involving sexual abuse in children’s homes where Davis was called upon as an expert witness. He wrote about the Surbiton case in one of his Social Work Today columns (2):

The care worker’s defence was that he was merely touching the boys’ genitals “to check if they were clean”, he also explained “it was a type of therapy to make sure the boys washed properly”.  An unspecified ‘incident’ in a caravan was strenuously denied by  – “Good grief, I never did that. I gave the the young ones a kiss and a cuddle before they went to sleep.” The court then heard Len Davis’s testimony on ‘the importance of touch in the residential setting’.

I put before the jury some of the problems of residential staff working with disturbed, unsettled, often unhappy and jealous young people. I spoke about the importance of touch, the nature of deprivation and the power of adolescent sexuality, pointing to the sexual rivalries which develop in group living and to the constant risks faced by staff in difficult areas of child care practice. A great deal – probably the outcome of the trial- depended upon the question of the sexual gratification experienced by the adult. The defendant was presented as an untrained worker holding a senior position. .. It was said he always behaved professionally…. I felt unable to reassure the court that guidelines for practice, supervision and staff training in many children’s homes could be considered of a satisfactory standard and it was admitted that decision-making in the grey areas was likely to rebound at some point on any individual who sought to work intensively with touch-hungry children. (3)

The trial at Kingston Crown Court was stopped after five days when Judge Chris Oddie dismissed the case.

What Len Davis failed to mention in his Social Work Today article is that the allegations concerned two separate children’s homes, one in Surbiton which was run by Kingston Council, and one in Croydon which was run by Lambeth Council.

Up to 25 Lambeth Council-run children’s homes are now known to have been infiltrated by paedophiles, police believe that over 200 children were sexually abused whilst in Lambeth’s care between 1974 and 1994. (4)

Len Davis’s article also omits the fact that a second worker at the Surbiton children’s home fled to the continent rather than face the charges against him. (5)

Len Davis wrote Sex and the Social Worker (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983), which was influential in forming social work practice in residential care, and goes some way to explaining  why sexual crime against children was frequently ignored and not subject to investigation. Peter Righton is acknowledged by Davis as having read the draft of this book and “making many valuable and challenging suggestions”.

In the book, Davis supported abolition of the age of consent, which was also supported by the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE). He quotes PIE member Peter Righton on this subject: “chronological age by itself is both arbitrary and misleading as an indication of a persons need to be protected from adult sexual advances”.(6)

He also quotes extensively from Peter Righton’s Sex and the Residential Social Worker article, including this passage which says child sexual abuse in children’s homes ‘should not be a matter for automatic enquiry’:

“It remains true.. that staff are much more likely to be forgiven seven times for vicious cruelty to a resident than once for a sexual liaison with him- even when the relationship is fully desired and enjoyed by both… Provided there is no question of exploitation, sexual relationships freely entered into by residents – including adolescents – should not be a matter for automatic enquiry, nor should a sexual relationship between a resident and a worker be grounds for automatic dismissal” (7)

Staff members too have touch needs. Skin contact with residents may consciously or unconsciously satisfy their own longings. And the physical make up of many young children- their size, their skin texture and their openness of expression – provides a massive invitation to intimacy. The onlooker, therefore, whether resident or staff member, may well interpret ‘response’ as ‘ initiation’ and in some establishments physical contact is limited to the very young. In others, however, the climate allows for touch between staff and even older adolescents as part of their developmental and compensatory needs’ … ‘rarely, I would maintain, is the exchange without sexual meaning for either party, but this does not of necessity make it ‘dangerous’ or offer immediate grounds for ‘suspicion’. (8)

Davis defined young people as often initiating sexual contact and ‘seducing’ the adult staff: In relation to a 14 year old boy, where there was an allegation of sexual abuse by a residential worker, Davis states .. there is no doubt in my mind that Keith’s heightened awareness, his detailed knowledge of sexual activities and his particular stage of adolescent development combined to give him unnatural powers of seduction vis-a-vis the young worker compelled to hand in his resignation. (9)

The young people are presenting themselves in a different light- as pulsating, sexual beings exploring their capacities for sensual pleasure (10)

Len Davis suggested guidelines for social workers which would mean sexual abuse would often go unreported. In common with the writings of Dr Ken Plummer, Peter Righton, and other members of the Paedophile Information Exchange, he tried to make a distinction between ‘child rapists’ and ‘paedophiles’, undermined the notion of offenders and victims, and suggested that intervention by police, families, and social workers was worse than the abuse itself. He also suggested it was social workers duty to condone breaking the law and ignoring official policy on ‘matters of sexuality’.

…in reacting to sexual encounters between adults and children which those involved may, in the first instance, appear to be appropriately categorised as offenders and victims, social workers should consider any differences of approach when the exchanges have been reciprocally desired and reciprocally enjoyed. (11)

Fortunately, the majority of sexual abuse cases with which social workers are involved – whether incestuous or not – while making an emotional and physical assault upon the child, do not put him or her at risk of bodily injury. Sometimes, when working with young people, social workers may need to question the very term ‘sexual abuse’ …  the most damaging experience may be the clumsy professional intervention or the exaggerated reactions of family, friends, neighbours or teachers. (12)

It is quite apparent that in matters of sexuality, a social worker’s professional duty is almost bound on occasions to include, first, condoning or even encouraging breaches of the law, and, secondly, ignoring agency policy. (13)

Davis, like Dr Ken Plummer, writes of ‘victims’ in inverted commas. Davis suggests that institutions should avoid getting the police involved in cases of sexual abuse.

In general the avoidance of suspension seems preferable unless the person wishes to go off duty. .. From the young person’s point of view it seems important to indicate that nobody is ‘ telling’ anybody to go off duty. It must be remembered that frequently adults and young people who have become linked in this way have previously had – and still have- an established relationship and its destruction by formal and sometimes legal action can leave the young person with unbearable guilt about the part he or she played. Caring for someone and then knowing that you have lost him or her a job, blighted a career, even forced a person out of their accommodation and broken up a family are heavy burdens for the ‘ victim’ to carry and often they have to be carried for a long time. (14)

.. we can clear our minds of much suspicion, of the need to punish and of the desire for excessive control. I am not celebrating the post-permissive society, lauding unbridled sexual activity and suggesting free sexual exchanges in residential care. I am advocating a hard look at institutional frameworks with a view to lessening the embarrassment, guilt and harshness of response which surround too many aspects of sexuality in residents and staff members. But I go further than that, placing a responsibility on staff – again, both practitioners and managers – to display a far greater degree of kindness in working with events which on first examination may appear to merit retribution. (15)

My experience is that from the moment of investigation, societal violence may often be so strong that all involved are damaged or destroyed in the process. (16)

As this 1983 Social Work Today profile shows, he was a ‘freelance social work consultant’ as was Peter Righton. Both specialised in residential care.

As well as lecturing at Brunel University, he was also a member of the North London-based Voice of the Child in Care, and worked in Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines.

People who promote paedophilia may not be paedophiles themselves, but they provide paedophiles with the intellectual justification to perpetrate crimes against children.

In the UK it is a crime to incite racial hatred – why doesn’t a similar law apply for inciting sexual crimes against children?

References

(1) ‘Sex and the Residential Social Worker’ by Peter Righton, Social Work Today, 15th Feb 1977

(2) ‘A Case of Indecent Assault’ by Len Davis, Social Work Today, 13th Feb 1979

(3) p.84, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(4) ‘Paedophile network abused 200 children’ by Jason Bennetto, The Independent, 19th Feb 2000 Full article

 (5) ‘Man flees country after sex charges’, Surrey Comet, 16th December 1978

(6) ‘The Adult’ by Peter Righton, p.242, Perspectives on Paedophilia (Batsford, 1981)

(7) ‘Sex and the Residential Social Worker’ by Peter Righton, Social Work Today, 15th Feb 1977

(8) p.25, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(9) p.67, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(10) p.30, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(11) p.68, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(12) p.65, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(13) p.107, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(14) p.87, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(15) p.91, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

(16) p.102, ‘Sex and the Social Worker’ by Leonard E. Davis (Heinemann Educational Books, 1983)

See also Paedophilia in Academia: Dr Ken Plummer, University of Essex

Paedophilia in Academia: Dr Ken Plummer, University of Essex

The German Green Party recently apologised for their part in promoting paedophilia. Read more The Green’s co-leader, Jurgen Trittin, was accused of signing off a 1981 pamphlet calling for the decriminalisation of sexual acts between adults and children “that occur without the use of threat or force”. People who promote paedophilia may not be paedophiles themselves, but they provide paedophiles with the intellectual justification to perpetrate crimes against children.

In the UK it is a crime to incite racial hatred – why doesn’t a similar law apply for inciting sexual crimes against children?

Dr Ken Plummer

Dr. Ken Plummer has been associated with the University of Essex since 1975, and was once Head of the Sociology Department. In his biography he states that his main interests “have always been in the development of a humanistic method and theory to help towards a better social world where there will be less socially produced suffering”. University of Essex website

It could be said that he has done the opposite – he has helped create more suffering by promoting paedophilia and providing ‘academic’ opinions which support the views of those who sexually abuse children. In fact he openly admits his intentions:

By applying sociology to the field of paedophilia we may partially relativise it, humanise it, normalise it, and politicise it. (1)

Ken Plummer attempted to redefine the language surrounding child sexual abuse. In his world, child victims are ‘partners’, sexual abuse is ‘consensual’, a  child being sexually abused by an adult is ‘a relationship’, and long term effects of sexual abuse are mostly ‘a myth’.

…there is the stereotype that the child is “innocent”, “uninvolved” and “non-participating”: this can be so (notably in rape cases) but this is usually not the case with paedophilia. (2)

A sixth stereotype suggests that the consequences to the child of paedophilia are devastating. They can be, but frequently they are not. This is a complex issue and three crucial distinctions must be made here; the first requires distinguishing between experiences that are consensual (paedophilia) and those that are not (child rape)… (3)

His language is very similar in tone to that of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), an organisation that campaigned for the age of consent to be reduced to 4 years old, effectively legalising paedophilia. This might not be a coincidence, as it has been said that Ken Plummer was member no. 236 of PIE, and regularly corresponded with other members of PIE, including Peter Righton.

Righton was a highly respected child care expert who had helped create a network of paedophile academics and intellectuals that preyed on children in schools and children’s homes across the UK. BBC Inside Story: The Secret Life of a Paedophile

Plummer and Righton both contributed to a book called Perspectives on Paedophilia. The book was a supposedly objective look at paedophilia, and was designed to be used on social work training courses. If Plummer was a member of PIE at the time, or was supportive of their views, he should have declared this interest and therefore his lack of objectivity.

He refers to paedophiles sexual abusing children under 6 years old as ‘a relationship’, and uses inverted commas around the word ‘victim’:

But again, studies suggest that relationships with children under 6 are rare – and that relationships with early adolescents are the most common. (4)

A second group of assumptions highlights the nature of childhood and “child victims”. (5)

Plummer concedes the shortcomings of research of the subject of paedophilia, but is still happy to cite outdated studies if they can be used to support the sexual abuse of children.

While there is little scientific research in this field – and what exists usually depends upon biased psychiatric and prison samples… (6)

He uses this inadequate ‘research’ to undermine the fact that sexual abuse causes devastating harm to the child, and instead lays the blame for any harm with parents, the police, and the courts:

A further image concerns the impact of paedophilia on the child: in the short run, the child is traumatized; and in the long run, seriously damaged. Perhaps surprisingly, the evidence does not support this. In the short run, studies suggest that children’s problems often flow from the reactions of parents who respond to the event with such horror that it elevates the significance of the experience in the child’s eye. The significance can be compounded by police and court action. In the long run, the “victims” are generally shown to lead “normal” lives. In Gagnon’s sample of 333 “victims”, only 5 percent had damaged adult lives – but even “damage” could have had diverse origins. (7)

Plummer goes on to deny that paedophiles are usually interested in sex with children, that it is forced upon the child, and that it is exploitative. Note his use of ‘quotes’ from members of the public in a blatant attempt to demonstrate how uneducated and vulgar the opponents of paedophilia are.

Three further ‘myths’ focus upon the kinds of relationship between paedophile and child. It is usually seen as a coital relationship (interestingly, the press convert “paedophilia” (literally “love of children”) into “child-sex”, so people could remark: “They’re after fucking little kids, ain’t they”); as a forced relationship (“It’s an open door to rape”; “If you’ve got a little child 4 years old and you think one of these bastards is gonna rape the child, and it’s gonna be legal…”); and as an exploitative one. (8)

Despite his admission about the shortcomings of research on paedophilia, Plummer cites an obscure 1964 study by Mohr to challenge the idea that paedophiles use force and to lay blame on the child for inviting the abuse:

Indeed, in some cases the child can be seen as “inviting” the relationship, and – according to Mohr – “most children could have avoided the experience if they wanted to”. The Kinsey study also noted: “In our total of 18,000 interviews, no man or woman reported being victimised by a child.” (9) See also Kinsey’s Paedophiles

Plummer also frequently cites Mohr in ‘Constructing a Sociological Baseline’ to peddle the lie that victims of child abuse are ‘willing partners’:

A third stereotype suggests that the sex act is forced on the child and is uncontrolled. It is not. Again Mohr (1968)…observes that paedophilia occurs in part with the cooperation of the child either out of sexual curiosity or out of emotional need. It is comparatively rare that the sex act is forced upon the child. (10)

Plummer refers to “many case histories” which he claims prove that “children have been greatly assisted in their development” by being sexually abused by an adult (11), and denies that the abused child is exploited by the adult:

It is difficult, then, within a paedophile relationship to be very clear about the balance of power. Certainly if one just studies existing relationships, the power balance can be very ambiguous – for maybe as Tom O’Carroll suggests “Power in a consensual relationship resides with the party that needs the relationship less”, and very often that is the child. Sometimes, then, it is possible for the child to “exploit” the adult – financially and emotionally. (12)

Please note that Tom O’Carroll was Chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange and in 2006 was convicted for distributing a collection of 50,000 images of child abuse. He was arrested after undercover police infiltrated a group known as the International Paedophile Child Emancipation Group and its subsidiary, Gentlemen with an Interesting Name.“According to police O’Carroll saw the groups as a base for an “international secret society” of “academic” child abusers…Children, mainly boys and some as young as six, had been filmed and photographed being raped and tortured.” BBC News

Tom O’Carroll

In University contracts there is usually a clause about ‘not bringing the University into any disrepute’.

The University also has a duty of care to the students.

It is time that the University of Essex’s Vice Chancellor and Governors addressed these issues with Dr Plummer who should surely, like the German Green Party, be asked to apologise for the pro-paedophile views he expressed so forcefully in the above writings.

The essays quoted above are dated and it’s possible that Dr Plummer may have altered his views since then, as there is much more academic material available now, as well as many first hand accounts from survivors which explain the hugely damaging long term effects of child sexual abuse.

Questions for the Vice Chancellor of University of Essex

– Do you understand that Dr Plummer’s views as expressed in the above texts could be said to bring the University into disrepute?

– If thse same views have been presented to students at your University through Dr Plummer’s teaching and writing, do you consider that this has demonstrated a breach of the University’s duty of care towards its students?

– Will you facilitate Dr Plummer in making a formal apology to victims and survivors of child sexual crime for the views he expressed in his writings as cited above?

– Will you provide a statement that Dr Plummer’s teaching, writing and research does not in any way currently promote pro-paedophile perspectives?

– I will publish the Vice Chancellor’s response on this website.

Questions for Dr Ken Plummer

– Do you still hold the same views on paedophilia that are expressed in your essays Paedophilia: Constructing a Sociological Baseline and Images of Paedophilia?

– If you do still hold these views, does your teaching reflect these views?

– If your views have changed, have you written anything which clarifies your position? I’ll happily publish it on this blog.

– If you do still hold these views, what do you say to child victims and survivors who may have been abused by those students influenced by your teachings? I’ll happily publish an apology on this website to the victims, survivors and students.

References

(1) p.244, Paedophilia: Constructing a Sociological Baseline by Kenneth Plummer, from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, University Press, 1981

(2) p.226, Paedophilia: Constructing a Sociological Baseline by Kenneth Plummer, from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, University Press, 1981

(3) p.226, Paedophilia: Constructing a Sociological Baseline by Kenneth Plummer, from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, University Press, 1981

(4) p.539, Images of Paedophilia by Ken Plummer, from Love and Attraction: An International Conference, edited by Mark Cook and Glenn Wilson, Pergamon Press, 1979

(5) p.538, Images of Paedophilia by Ken Plummer, from Love and Attraction: An International Conference, edited by Mark Cook and Glenn Wilson, Pergamon Press, 1979

(6) p.537, Images of Paedophilia by Ken Plummer, from Love and Attraction: An International Conference, edited by Mark Cook and Glenn Wilson, Pergamon Press, 1979

(7) p.539, Images of Paedophilia by Ken Plummer, from Love and Attraction: An International Conference, edited by Mark Cook and Glenn Wilson, Pergamon Press, 1979

(8) p.539, Images of Paedophilia by Ken Plummer, from Love and Attraction: An International Conference, edited by Mark Cook and Glenn Wilson, Pergamon Press, 1979

(9) p.539, Images of Paedophilia by Ken Plummer, from Love and Attraction: An International Conference, edited by Mark Cook and Glenn Wilson, Pergamon Press, 1979

(10) p.225, Paedophilia: Constructing a Sociological Baseline by Kenneth Plummer, from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, University Press, 1981

(11) p.539, Images of Paedophilia by Ken Plummer, from Love and Attraction: An International Conference, edited by Mark Cook and Glenn Wilson, Pergamon Press, 1979

(12) p.243, Paedophilia: Constructing a Sociological Baseline by Kenneth Plummer, from Adult Sexual Interest in Children, edited by Mark Cook and Kevin Howells, University Press, 1981