This inquiry must investigate the Labour Party
An investigation of Labour's local government; 1970s to today
By Damocles561
The ongoing crisis of the Pakistani Muslim Rape Gangs, particularly those linked to Labour-controlled councils in towns such as Rotherham, Rochdale, and Telford, has led the public to the perception that the Labour Party made an explicitly political calculation to ignore grooming gangs: trading the safety of young girls for a monopoly on the Muslim vote.
Investigations, such as Andrew Norfolk’s Times investigation and the 2014 Jay Report exposed systemic failures, where over 1,400 children were systematically abused by organised grooming gangs between 1997 and 2013. Local Labour authorities were accused of neglecting victims due to a combination of cultural deference and political expediency and in some cases intimidation.
For decades, a small but courageous group of professional and citizen journalists have undertaken intrepid reporting to bring these truths to light.
These efforts have reached some fruition with the announcement that a national inquiry into grooming gangs will finally take place – thirteen years after Nick Griffin called for an inquiry into Rotheram. But how deep will this inquiry really dig? Is Casey really willing to leave no stone unturned in the search for truth?
The sheer scale of individuals within Labour’s lower political ranks who have been criminally prosecuted for CSE, documented in this report, suggests, at the very least, a systemic failing of safeguarding. This is important context when it comes to explaining the ‘willful blindness’ of the Labour party regarding grooming gangs. It may not have been just motivated by fear of inflaming racial tensions on behalf of some local councillors; their complacency could be explained in part by their own proclivities.
The history of pedophilia within the Labour Party is a long one, beginning with the ‘infiltration’ of far-left activist groups by the Pedophile Information Exchange, linked to Patricia Hewitt in the 1970s (who would go onto become Health Secretary under Blair). Margaret Hodge, who would also go onto serve in the Blair government, was leader of the Labour Islington Council in the 1980s, a time and place where sexual predators were given virtually unfettered access to vulnerable children in care homes.
In total this investigation, which has gone as far back as 1975 to the present day, has turned up 61 former officials or employees of the British Labour Party who have been convicted for sex crimes against children. It’s impossible to know for certain, but it’s reasonable to assume that this is just the tip of an enormous iceberg. Many of these individuals have exploited their local government positions in order to gain access to children. If this inquiry is going to examine institutional failings then it must also investigate this historic problem within the Labour Party to contextualise the crisis.
In many of the cases where officials were prosecuted for possession charges, the number of pictures and or videos reported was rounded down to the nearest hundred or thousand. In many cases the number was not revealed at all. Per the released figures, the minimum estimate of the total number of images possessed between them is 659,614.
The scale is extraordinary, and the Labour Party’s apparent infiltration by sex offenders should be a focus of the national inquiry. The Labour Party may well have a scandal on its hands similar to that of the Catholic Church. For balance, I have also investigated other records of convictions for other parties; finding four instances for the Conservatives and one for the Greens.
Before we begin, there are two classifications establishing the scale of image-based abuse used by law enforcement pertaining to the cases herein. They are the SAP scale, established in 2002 by Regina v Oliver in the Court of Appeal of England and Wales and its 2014 replacement, the Sexual Offences Definitive Guideline. Below is a breakdown of those metrics.
SAP Scale Classification Guidance:
Level 1: Nudity or erotic posing with no sexual activity
Level 2: Sexual activity between children, or solo masturbation by a child
Level 3: Non-penetrative sexual activity between adult(s) and child(ren)
Level 4: Penetrative sexual activity between child(ren) and adult(s)
Level 5: Sadism or bestiality
Sexual Offences Definitive Guideline Classification
Category A: Images involving penetrative sexual activity and/or images involving sexual activity with an animal or sadism
Category B: Images involving non-penetrative sexual activity
Category C: Other indecent images not falling within categories A or B
Alec Dyer-Atkins - Labour Party. Councillor for Northampton and a school governor at Kingsthorpe Grove Primary School in Northampton.
In July 2002, he was charged in connection with downloading more than 42,000 paedophilic images, including 2,500 movies. Dyer-Atkins was caught with 45 other people for their membership of a major, Internet-based paedophile network known as the Shadows Brotherhood.
His arrest was of a wider sweep by law enforcement code-named "Operation Twins."
Contained in the collections were images from every category of sexual abuse.
Deputy Head of the UK's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit, Detective Superintendent Mick Deats, said of Dyer-Atkins: "This man had some of the worst images on his computers that officers from this unit have ever viewed. Dyer-Atkins lurked in chat rooms and bulletin boards, collecting both still images and movies; he also provided security advice for other like-minded individuals within these chat room and bulletin board areas."
He received a two-year jail sentence.
Steven Bayes - Labour Party. Councillor for the Orchard Park and Greenwood ward on Hull City Council.
Bayes served as a Labour county councillor on the former Humberside authority, chaired the Humberside Police Authority, and held cabinet roles at Hull City Council, including portfolios for housing, visitor destination, and the City of Culture 2017 bid.
He was also a nurse at Hull Royal Infirmary and a Co-operative movement leader, once on its national board. Bayes aspired to succeed John Prescott as Labour MP for Hull East but withdrew after a 2007 arrest in Belfast for alleged gross indecency with a 17-year-old, which resulted in no charges.
During a separate investigation in 2018, police found nine Category A images, three Category B videos, and extreme pornography in a folder named "Despicable" on his laptop.
On February 13, 2018, Bayes was convicted at Hull Crown Court of two counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing extreme pornography.
The "extreme pornography" material in question was bestiality.
Bayes was sentenced to one year in prison, a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) restricting internet-enabled device use, and a 10-year sex offenders register placement.
Bayes, unrepentant, thanked the judge before being led to cells.
Gilbert Benn - Labour Party. Councillor for the Paston ward in Peterborough.
Benn was found guilty of two counts of attempted rape, five counts of sexual assault, and four counts of witness intimidation. The crimes involved molesting an 11-year-old boy over an 18-month period, culminating in two attempted rape attacks on a single night in the summer of 2006.
Benn threatened the boy's mother, leveraging his position in the party in an attempt to intimidate her.
In an attempt to derail the police investigation, he further threatened her; the second time, the threat was to have her killed.
In November of 2008, Benn was sentenced to five years in prison and banned from working with children for life.
Lee Benson - Labour Party. Councillor for the Wortley ward in Leeds City Council.
In February 2005, at Leeds Crown Court, Benson pleaded guilty to 12 counts of possessing indecent images of children.
The court heard that some of the images he had looked at on his computer at Leeds Civic Hall contained girls as young as five.
Benson was placed on the Sex Offenders' Register and was given a nine-month suspended sentence.
He received no jail time.
Nelson Bland - Labour Party. Councillor in Bulmershe ward of Wokingham District Council in Berkshire and IT school teacher at Denefield School in Tilehurst, Berkshire.
Bland pleaded guilty to 16 counts of making indecent images of children and one count of possessing an indecent image.
The case came to light during a police raid on his home, initially linked to an investigation into the murder of a Nottingham businessman (Bland was not charged with the murder). The images were discovered on his underage daughter's computer.
In his collection of Class A images, a selection depicted a child in shackles being abused.
Magistrate Rod Bailey sentenced Bland to 100 hours of community service, placed him on the sex offenders' register for five years, and ordered him to attend a rehabilitation program for sex offenders.
He received no jail time.
Terry Brookes - Labour Party. Councillor for the West Thurrock and South Stifford ward on Thurrock Council.
Brookes was convicted in 2016 at Basildon Crown Court for possessing and distributing indecent images of children. He pleaded guilty to six counts of making 37 Category A, 10 counts of making 47 Category B images, three counts of making 12 Category C images, and three counts of distributing indecent images between January 2013 and August 2015.
The court heard that Brookes used peer-to-peer software to share images, including those of children as young as five, and had a history of accessing such material.
On November 29, 2016, Brookes was sentenced to a 12-month jail term, suspended for two years, along with 200 hours of community service, restrictions on computer use, and a requirement to sign the sex offenders register.
He received no jail time.
Stewart Brown - Labour Party. Labour Party Lord Mayor and town councillor for Hebden Royd in Calderdale, West Yorkshire.
In July 2009, Brown admitted to 21 offences of possessing indecent images of children and one of distributing pictures. Police found 1,232 indecent images of children on his computer hard drive and CDs. The collection contained images of Level 5 sexual abuse.
Detective Constable John Higgins told the court many of the children in the images appeared to be in "some distress."
Children in the images were as young as three years old.
His arrest and the subsequent confiscation of his computer were the result of an investigation conducted by police dismantling a file-sharing website. During the trial, prosecutor Michael Collins told the court the file-sharing forum contained images of school girls in uniforms. Brown was identified as a user operating under the name "Teensrace."
Brown admitted to taking an image from a 12-year-old girl's social media profile and uploading it to the website.
At Leeds Crown Court, he was given a nine-month prison sentence suspended for two years and was placed on the sex offenders register for ten years.
He received no jail time.
Mark Burton - Labour Party. Councillor for Darlington Borough Council and Chairman of Darlington Council's children and young persons' scrutiny committee.
Burton was convicted in February 2012 of sexually assaulting a schoolgirl and possessing indecent images of children.
The assault took place at his re-election party. The victim reported the attack to police, leading to a search of Burton's home and devices.
Specialist forensic technology officers found file-wiping software, which digitally shredded documents he had held on his computer.
Despite the software, they were able to uncover 16 child abuse images on his laptop. The court heard Burton had scoured the internet for phrases linked to paedophilia thousands of times.
He was sentenced to 22 months in prison and placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
Steve Carnell (referred to as Stephen Carnell in some reports) - Labour Party. Councillor in Rhondda Cynon Taf, Wales, and served as an election agent for prominent Labour politicians, including Chris Bryant MP and Leighton Andrews. Additionally, Carnell was a chairman of a local primary school.
In March 2011, South Wales Police arrested him on 49 charges, as reported by Wales Online. Charges stemmed from activities dating back to 2003. His personal collection of child sexual abuse was spread over a network of five laptops with over 10,000 indecent images, with more than 2,000 classified at Level 4 and around 150 at Level 5.
Additionally, he was charged with possessing extreme pornographic images. The prosecution highlighted that the collection included some of the most severe child abuse images encountered by police. The images included extreme sexual sadism and bestiality.
Prosecutor David Pugh was able to show the court that Carnell had a sophisticated file-sharing network where he exchanged images with others of his kind.
In November 2011, he was sentenced to three years in prison at Cardiff Crown Court, ordered to register as a sex offender for life, ordered to comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), and banned from working with children.
Simon Carter - Labour Party. Councillor for the Tottington ward on Bury Council. He was also a self-employed IT trainer and had previously worked as an IT consultant for Oldham Council.
During his investigation for possession of child abuse material, police and Bury Children's Services found 30 indecent images from A, B and C categories had been deleted from Carter's computers, plus 138 computer-generated images not included in the indictment.
Carter admitted to police he had a sexual interest in girls aged 9–11 and had been searching for such images since 2003. He claimed the searches were medicinal and that consuming the sexual abuse material helped with his erectile dysfunction.
In September 2015, Carter was sentenced at Bolton Crown Court to a three-year community order with a three-year supervision requirement after pleading guilty to 16 counts of making indecent images of children between January 2011 and April 2015.
He was ordered to complete a sex offender program, sign the sex offenders' register for five years, and comply with a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).
He received no jail time, with the judge citing "impressive" character references, including one from former headteacher and Bury Council leader for Labour, Mike Connolly. Additionally, Connolly had served on the Local Government Association's Safer and Secure Communities board.
In December 2020, Carter, then 58, was sentenced to another three-year community order at Bolton Crown Court for breaching his SHPO by failing to disclose a laptop to police for 18 months, discovered during a September 2020 inspection.
A 2017 investigation revealed Bury Council's chief executive, Mike Owen, and children's services director, Mark Carriline, delayed child protection procedures to avoid impacting a 2015 election, leading to their resignations. Owen failed to inform schools where Carter was a governor, breaching safeguarding protocols.
Sam Chaudhry (also spelt as Sam Chaudry in some reports) - Labour Party. Councillor and Deputy Mayor of Merton, London and previously a councillor for the Figges Marsh ward.
In January 2001, Chaudhry was found guilty of four counts of indecent assault against two girls under 16.
These offences occurred between January 1988 and December 2000, during his tenure as a councillor for Longthornton ward.
Chaudhry, then 70, admitted the charges at Kingston Crown Court after initially pleading not guilty to 11 counts of sexual abuse, including two additional charges involving another female from 1968–1972.
Had he not been reported by one of his victims, Chaudhry would have been Merton's first South Asian mayor.
Judge Richard McGregor-Johnson said: "You have shown good character as a councillor and as deputy mayor of Merton; indeed, you would have become mayor of Merton had these allegations not surfaced. Yet I have to deal with you and the other side of your character. You displayed grudging acceptance of the seriousness of what you did. I have come to the conclusion you are more concerned about the loss of your reputation."
He was sentenced to two years in prison for each count, to run concurrently.
Adrian Cirket - Labour Party. Councillor for Shepway District Council and St. Mary in the Marsh Parish Council, a trade union official with the GMB Union. He was a school governor.
Criket came to the attention of police after his partner reported finding his collection to the police. More than 500 sexual images were discovered. The images included material made from children as young as five years old.
He was charged with 10 counts of downloading child pornography and appeared in Canterbury Crown Court in June of 2011.
Cirket received a three-year community order for these offences, which placed him on the sex offenders register.
He did not receive jail time.
Paul Clark - Labour Party. MP for Gillingham, Kent, and as a councillor on Gillingham Borough Council. He also held roles as Parliamentary Private Secretary to John Prescott and Ed Balls and was Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Transport.
The National Crime Agency (NCA) arrested Clark in May 2021, finding 1,446 indecent images across five devices (two iPhones, an HP laptop, a hard drive, and an Acer computer tower), including 298 Category A images, 415 Category B, and 733 Category C, with 343 videos (141 Category A). The images depicted children as young as three, mostly females, with at least one six-year-old male. Clark engaged in sexually explicit online chats, sharing images and discussing sexual desires, including with users under 18 on social media.
In May 2023, Clark was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court after pleading guilty in December 2022 to three counts of making indecent images of children and six counts of distributing indecent images between April 2013 and May 2021.
Clark was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years, received a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and was sentenced to 2 years and 4 months in prison.
Raymond Coates - Labour Party. County councillor for North Yorkshire County Council.
In 2015 Raymond and his son Philip Coates were facing 12 sex charges at York Crown Court, including inciting a woman to have sex with an animal, child rape and using threats to procure a woman for sex.
The court heard that the men threatened the victim with violence and forced her to have sex with a dog.
In December of that year, Raymond Coates died, choking to death while eating a sandwich.
Philip Coates was later jailed for a period of 13 years after being convicted of three charges of procuring a woman to have sex with his father, one of attempted procurement and one of inciting a woman to commit a serious sexual offence with an animal.
Sean Coughlan -Labour Party. Councillor for the Willenhall South ward on Walsall Council.
On December 2, 2021, Sean Coughlan was arrested by West Midlands Police in Willenhall, Walsall, on suspicion of sexual grooming following a sting operation by the Northwest Hebephile Hunters, a paedophile hunter group. At the time of his arrest, he was preparing to play the role of Santa Claus in three Christmas festivals around Walsall.
The group confronted Coughlan near his home in Martin Drive, Short Heath, Willenhall, and posted a 30-minute video of the encounter on social media, which went viral and led to his arrest. The video showed Coughlan being questioned about his alleged online activity with someone he believed was a 14-year-old girl who was actually a decoy created by the group.
Coughlan sent pictures of himself to the decoy and asked her to touch herself. Between August and December last year, he sent regular messages of a sexual nature to "Darcy."
Coughlan had set up his a private Facebook group, which he entitled "Our Private Place", to isolate and communicate with Darcy alone. Coughlan frequently messaged her and asked her to perform various sexual acts while describing her reactions to him.
He admitted in Wolverhampton Crown Court court to one count relating to sexual communication and one count relating to attempted sexual activity with a child under 16 between August and December 2021.
He was given a five-year restriction prohibiting contact with children.
During sentencing, Judge Chambers said: "There was no harm in this case because this was a vigilante decoy, it was an attempt."
The judge went on to say: "Significantly, you served your community well. Becoming the leader of your political party. You tried to help others."
Coughlan was unable to play Santa at the Christmas festivals.
He received no jail time.
Iestyn Tudor Davies (often spelt "Lestyn" in some records) - Labour Party. Councillor for Brackla in Bridgend, South Wales.
Davies was found guilty of repeatedly raping a nine-year-old girl on at least three separate occasions. A jury found him guilty of two charges of rape and an indecent assault against the girl.
The assaults occurred while his wife, Pamela, a magistrate, slept in the next room.
Tom Dewey - Labour Party. Councillor in Hackney.
Dewey was arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) on April 29, 2022, following reports that he had uploaded illegal images to an online Google Drive. Despite his arrest, Dewey was elected as a Labour councillor for the De Beauvoir ward on May 5, 2022, just six days later. He resigned on May 16, 2022, after the council was informed of his arrest by the NCA on May 13, triggering a by-election.
On July 18, 2023, Dewey pleaded guilty at Uxbridge Magistrates' Court to five charges: making five Category A indecent images of children, four Category B images, and 203 Category C images on April 29, 2022, as well as possessing 78 extreme pornographic images and 1,523 prohibited images (including cartoons or CGI) of children, some dating back to January 20, 2022.
Included in the 78' extreme pornographic" categories included images involving violence, graphic serious injuries and sex with animals.
In reporting from The Standard, "Full details of the abuse pictures were not revealed in court, but Ms Mostafa told the judge he could read a report which detailed "sadism", "penetration", and the ages of the children involved."
The timeline of this case is deeply concerning. Dewey was arrested before the election but remained a candidate. Dewey shared a house with then-Labour Mayor Philip Glanville.
Glanville first claimed he was unaware of the arrest until May 14, 2022, when informed by the council's chief executive. A photo later emerged of Glanville with Dewey at a Eurovision party on May 14, leading to Glanville's suspension from Labour and his resignation as mayor in 2023.
An independent review done internally in 2024 found the council acted appropriately once informed.
In September 2023, Dianne Abbott specifically cited the intervention by Labour into the Dewey case when discussing her own suspension on an unrelated matter. Taken directly from the Hackney citizen: "She also accused Labour of intervening in Hackney's constituency parties by stopping their access to internal communication systems, through which they contact members. This followed the revelation that former Labour councillor Tom Dewey was facing charges of possessing indecent images of children. Dewey has since been given a suspended sentence after admitting his guilt. Abbott said the party stepped in after members raised safeguarding concerns. She claimed its intervention, including the removal of locally elected officers, means "the Labour apparatus has decapitated the elected leadership of the constituency party to install its own hand-picked personnel and replace me as the candidate prior to the next election."
On August 15, 2023, at Wood Green Crown Court, Dewey received a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, along with 150 hours of community service, 40 days of rehabilitation, and a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order restricting contact with children.
He did not receive jail time.
Paul Diggett (often misspelt as "Diggert") - Labour Party. Councillor for the Cheadle and Gatley ward in Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, Greater Manchester.
He was a political researcher for Labour MP James Purnell, a close ally of Tony Blair and later a cabinet minister. He was a school governor at Kingsway School and Brookhead Primary School in Cheadle.
When police raided his home, where he lived with his parents, and seized evidence, Diggett was charged with four counts of making and distributing indecent pictures and pseudo-photographs of children between February and October 2002. The material was accessed using a computer belonging to MP James Purnell, raising questions about shared responsibility, though Purnell was not charged.
Diggert was further investigated for arranging to meet an undercover reporter who posed as a 12-year-old.
In 2004, at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court, Diggett pleaded guilty to four charges of making and distributing indecent pictures and pseudo-photographs of children, committed between February and October 2002. He was sentenced on March 14, 2005, receiving a three-year community order, and was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for five years.
He received three months in prison.
Timothy Edmeades - Labour Party. Activist and caseworker in Thurrock, Essex, who held multiple roles that placed him in positions of trust around children, including as an assistant to Labour Party Councillor and Lord Mayor Gerard Rice, a teaching assistant, and a Scout leader.
The police found severe child abuse images on Edmeades's computer involving children as young as four. His crimes came to light when one victim, then 10 years old, contacted Childline two years after the assaults, leading to his arrest. Edmeades attempted to pervert the course of justice by using his computer skills to discredit the children.
During the trial, former Labour councillor and Lord Mayor Gerard Rice provided a character reference for Edmeades, describing him as trustworthy based on their work together at a bed store and his assistance with Labour Party functions. An extraction from his reference reads, "Mr Edmeades worked for me from May 1997 to January 2001 at Benson Bedstore in Lakeside retail park, Lakeside. He was trustworthy, diligent, totally reliable with our customers and gave the company good service "He also assisted me throughout my term as mayor of Thurrock, dealing with many constituents, case work and helping at civil functions at the council."
Speaking to the Thurrock Gazette, the victim's parents said: "Edmeades sat in our home, laughing and talking to us and our son and at the same time, he was plotting how to abuse our boy. Our son has to live with this. Can you imagine what it's like? We hear him crying in the bath, when he's alone in his bed and he sometimes comes up and tells us he thinks his life is worthless."
In June 2008, he was convicted of sexually abusing young boys and possessing severe child abuse images, receiving a 33-month prison sentence at Basildon Crown Court.
In 2013, Edmeades was jailed again for seven months after being spotted breaching a court order by attending a children's karate class in Pitsea.
Craig Edward - Labour Party. Councillor in Clydebank Central. Additionally, Edward convened the Clydebank Central Housing and Communities Committee. During his time in the Labour Party, he held a valid Child PVG Certificate*
Police arrested Edward in September of 2002 after finding Edward in possession of 599 images and 93 videos of children. 69 Category A images and 67 Category A videos, some depicting children as young as infants.
The content of the material was particularly gruesome, even for the subject matter. Per reporting on March 27, 2024, from the Glasgow Times, his collection included material relating to an "alarmed and distressed baby."
During the sentencing portion of Edward's case, Sheriff William Gallacher stated the images "plumb the depths of depravity and abuse". Further, Detective Inspector Michelle Burns of Police Scotland's national child abuse investigation unit said: "The offending and behaviour of Edward was appalling. He showed utter contempt for the child victims and the horrific sexual abuse they suffered in the images and videos he was viewing and sharing.
On March 26, 2024, he was sentenced to 28 months in prison, reduced from 40 months due to his guilty plea. He was placed on the sex offenders register for 10 years and received a five-year sexual harm prevention order, restricting him from contacting minors, owning multiple devices, deleting browsing history, or using peer-to-peer services. Edwards had continued to represent the community as an independent councillor after pleading guilty to three charges related to child sex offences until resigning in March 2024.
*A child PVG certificate refers to a certificate issued under the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) Scheme in Scotland. The PVG Scheme is managed by Disclosure Scotland, a government agency responsible for conducting background checks to ensure individuals working with vulnerable groups, such as children or protected adults, are safe to do so.
David Fagan - Labour Party. Councillor for the Airdrie South ward on North Lanarkshire Council. Fagan was a member of the council's Education and Social Work committees.
On September 7, 2016, Fagan was arrested at his Airdrie home by Police Scotland on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children, with alleged offences occurring between June 25 and 30, 2016.
On March 22, 2018, he was sentenced to a three-year community payback order with supervision, 300 hours of unpaid work, mandatory participation in the Moving Forward: Making Changes sex offender program, and placement on the sex offenders register for five years.
He received no jail time.
Malcolm Ford - Labour Councillor for the Winton ward in Salford City Council, Greater Manchester. Ford was in teaching for 29 years chair of the board of governors at Edge Hill College and was head of a primary school in the Tameside area.
A victim came forward in 2012, citing an assault from two decades previous. The victim stated in court the delay of reporting was due to fears that Ford's position of prominence would shield him.
During his trial, prosecutor Guy Mathieson told the court Ford had accepted sexually touching the female victim but insisted it had never happened before she was 14.
Ford admitted similar indecent assaults against two other teenage girls.
He was sentenced to jail for 15 years.
John Friary - Labour Councillor for Brunswick Park ward in Southwark, London, head of community safety at Southwark Council, and a school governor at St. Joseph's RC Primary School in Camberwell. He campaigned for several Labour figures, including Harriet Harman and Tessa Jowell.
Friary was convicted in 2011 for grooming a child for sex between January 10 and January 14, 2010. He had sent explicit messages, offering to be a "father figure" and arranging to meet "Hannah" at a Tube station to take her to his Camberwell home to rape her.
In one of the messages, he wrote, "Hannah, I would love to be your father figure. You look so beautiful. Tell me about yourself and what you are into sexually - you know what I like."
Unbeknownst to him, he was actually corresponding with an adult male blackmailer, who was later jailed separately for extortion.
He was placed on the Sex Offenders Register and jailed for 15 months.
Friary again came to the attention of police when his contact details were discovered with Steven Robertson, who was being investigated over the murder of his ex-partner, Emma Robertson Coupland, and her daughter, Nicole Anderson.
After officers asked to speak with him, Friary ignored their order not to delete his internet history before a meeting could take place, violating his existing Sexual Harm Prevention Order. He was fined £600.
Brian Gate - Labour Party. Councillor and school governor in Harrow, North West London, responsible for child welfare as the cabinet member for children, schools, and families. He was a school governor at St Dominic's Sixth Form College, Mount Park Avenue, Harrow, and a former governor at St John's C of E Primary School, Stanmore Hill, Stanmore. He was a council appointee to Harrow Citizens' Advice Bureau, Harrow in Europe Committee, London Councils' Children and Young People Forum, and deputy for London Youth Games.
On September 24, 2012, he was arrested at his home on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children.
On January 7, 2013, Gate received a police caution for possession of indecent images of children and was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for two years.
He received no jail time.
Samuel Gamlin - Labour Party. Campaigner and temporary employee in their Newcastle call centre.
Gamlin was found guilty of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children. In November 2012, at Newcastle Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to two counts of this offence, stemming from activities on or before May 5, 2011, when he was 18 years old. Police discovered two films and 34 explicit images on his laptop, including those classified as Level 4 and 5.
Gamlin was sentenced to a three-year community order with supervision and mandated to attend a sex offenders' group work program. He was ordered to sign the sex offenders' register for five years.
He received no jail time.
Nicholas Green - Labour Party. Councillor for Westhoughton and Lord Mayor of Westhoughton, Lancashire.
Green was found guilty of multiple sexual offences against children and an adult. In October 1998, he was convicted at Bolton Magistrates' Court of 13 counts of rape and sexual assault, including the rape of a woman on her wedding day. The woman later told police she contemplated suicide.
He was further charged with indecent assault of three girls aged 6, 7, and 10. Green had access to the children via his wife's work as a childminder.
Green claimed one of the little girls had enticed him into the assaults by discussing the sex education lessons she had received at school.
Green was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
Richard Harris - Labour Party. Councillor candidate and school governor in Exeter, Devon.
Harris was arrested in October 2008 for offering children money for sex. Police seized his computer, uncovering a list of 500 children's names and 31 pages of contacts. Harris admitted to seven charges of inciting sexual activity, having offered up to £500 to girls under 13 for sex, whom he targeted via social networking sites like Bebo.
He often posed as a 15-year-old despite being an administrator at Norwich Union (now Aviva). Harris confessed to police that he "felt mostly turned on by girls under 16."
On March 6, 2009, Exeter Crown Court sentenced him to four years in prison and placed him on the Sex Offenders Register.
Derrick Hemingsley - Labour Party councillor for the Wordsley ward on Dudley Council, West Midlands. He was also a magistrate, a governor at Belle Vue Primary School in Wordsley, Chairman of the Friends of Wordsley Park, and a prospective parliamentary candidate.
In November 2015, West Midlands Police arrested Hemingsley on suspicion of possessing indecent images of children following a year-long investigation. He was placed on bail and suspended by the Labour Party pending the inquiry. On January 12, 2017, he appeared before Walsall Magistrates Court, charged with taking 90 indecent photographs of a child between August 6, 2013, and November 7, 2015.
He paid one boy up to £500 for participating in photo shoots involving poses stripped to the waist, which he claimed were not intended to be indecent.
The case was committed to Wolverhampton Crown Court, where he initially indicated a not-guilty plea but was granted conditional bail with restrictions on contacting children under 16 or the victim's family.
Hemingsley was given a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, handed down on September 7, 2017, at Wolverhampton Crown Court.
He received no jail time.
Eric Joyce - Labour MP for Falkirk. He was often referred to in the media as the "most expensive MP in Britain" for his many exorbitant expenses claims.
Before his child-related convictions, Joyce had a history of legal issues, including a 2012 conviction for assaulting several politicians in a House of Commons bar brawl, for which he was fined £3,000, ordered to pay £1,400 in compensation, and received a 12-month community order but no jail time. He resigned from the Labour Party after this incident and served as an independent MP until 2015. Other convictions include a 2013 breach of the peace at Edinburgh Airport and a 2014 assault in a Camden shop, for which he received a 10-week suspended sentence.
Joyce was arrested in November 2018 by Suffolk Constabulary following intelligence that led to the seizure of computer devices and hard drives.
He was subsequently charged with making an indecent recording of a child, specifically a 51-second Category A video (the most serious classification, depicting penetrative sexual abuse) found on a device, showing the abuse of multiple children aged between 12 months and seven years old.
On August 7, 2020, Joyce received an eight-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, 150 hours of unpaid work and a rehabilitation requirement, a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), and a requirement to sign the Sex Offenders Register.
He received no jail time.
Martyn Locklin - Labour Party. Councillor for Newton Aycliffe in County Durham within Tony Blair's Sedgefield constituency.
Locklin was convicted in July 2001 of multiple sexual offences against teenage boys. At Teesside Crown Court, he was found guilty of eight charges: two counts of indecent assault against one boy, two counts of indecent assault against a second boy, one count of serious sexual assault, two counts of rape, and one count of indecent assault against a third boy.
One victim testified to being raped monthly for two years, while another endured weekly assaults between ages 15 and 17. Locklin had been a senior Labour activist, escorting Tony Blair on constituency visits. He maintained his innocence, but the jury rejected his claims.
Locklin was sentenced to 15 years in prison. The sentence was reduced to 12 years on appeal in April 2002, though his conviction stood. He was also placed on the sex offenders' register for life.
Peter McLaughlin - Labour Party. Councillor and former Chairman of Stanley Town Council in County Durham. He also served as Chairman of the Stanley Area Action Partnership and stood unsuccessfully as a Labour candidate for the Tanfield ward in a Durham County Council election.
On November 4, 2014, McLaughlin, aged 61, pleaded guilty at Carlisle Crown Court to two counts of indecent assault on a 15-year-old boy, committed in the early 1990s while he lived in the Greystone Road area of Carlisle.
The offences involved inappropriate touching and kissing, described by Judge Peter Hughes QC as part of a "developing relationship" that continued after the victim turned 16. McLaughlin had denied the allegations through two prior trials, facing 15 similar charges, but changed his plea on the day a third trial was set to begin, sparing the victim further testimony. Prosecutor Kim Whittlestone noted the victim's desire to prevent future abuse, supporting an indefinite Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO).
On January 2, 2015, at Carlisle Crown Court, McLaughlin was sentenced to a six-month prison term, suspended for two years, with requirements to sign the sex offenders register for seven years and comply with an indefinite SOPO restricting contact with children.
Judge Hughes cited McLaughlin's "good character," positive testimonials, and acceptance of responsibility in mitigation, sparing him immediate jail.
McLaughlin resigned from the Labour Party after being charged in 2014 but remained on Stanley Town Council until after his guilty plea, prompting debates over Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) checks for councillors, which were later introduced.
Paul Middleton - Labour Party. Councillor on the Washington South ward for Sunderland. He served on the Children, Education and Skills Scrutiny Committee.
Between August 10 and September 3, 2024, Middleton had explicit online conversations with someone he believed to be a 13-year-old girl but who was actually a decoy police officer posing as a child.
Middleton believed the child was vulnerable and living in care.
Prosecutor Jonathan Devlin told the court Middleton asked the girl, in graphic terms, about sexual contact she had had with boys she was living in care with. Their conversations become significantly more explicit, and when the decoy described thinking the conversation was "gross". Prosecutor Devlin told the court Middleton's response was to say that: "any behaviour like that with him wouldn't be gross."
He was sentenced to a suspended 18 months sentence, with programme requirements, a three-month night-time curfew, and 100 hours of community service, and a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO): Imposed for 10 years. He was required to sign the Sex Offenders Register for seven years.
He received no jail time.
Sean Morton - Labour Party. Councillor for the Fochabers Lhanbryde ward of Moray.
In April 2018, Morton appeared at Elgin Sheriff Court and pleaded guilty to four charges.
The charges stemmed from a police investigation that uncovered a collection of Category A, B, and C images on his devices. He was additionally charged with distribution between 2016-2017.
Included in his collection were images depicting rape and bestiality (a depiction of an orgy with a dog)
Morton was sentenced to 140 hours of unpaid work and was placed under supervision for three years.
He received no jail time.
Tom Neilson - Labour Party. Councillor for the Measham South ward on North West Leicestershire District Council. Described as an "up-and-coming talent" in local politics, he was a popular community figure known for hosting parties and engaging with younger residents.
In November 2015, Leicestershire Police raided Neilson's home in Measham, arresting him and his lodger, Brendan Evans (aged 26), on suspicion of possessing Mephedrone (M-Cat), a Class B drug, with intent to supply. The raid uncovered 40.35 grams of M-Cat, worth £1,100, and drug paraphernalia. Neilson admitted to using M-Cat himself, facilitating drug deals by passing messages and allowing "wild drug parties" at his home, as stated by prosecutor James Bide-Thomas.
During the raid, police seized Neilson's computers and discovered he had accessed nearly 3,000 indecent images of children between 2008 and 2015. Neilson was in possession of 5 Category A, 9 Category B, and 2,762 Category C images.
On May 25, 2017, at Leicester Crown Court, Neilson, aged 33, pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images of children and one count of possessing extreme pornography, alongside drug charges (possessing M-Cat with intent to supply).
He was sentenced to a three-year community order, requiring participation in an internet sex offender treatment program, 180 hours of unpaid work, and placement on the sex offenders register.
He received no jail time.
Andrew Palmer - Labour Party. Election agent in Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, managing campaigns for Labour candidates during the 2012 Peterborough City Council elections, including councillors Nazim Khan, Jo Johnson, and Richard Knowles.
In 1979, he was convicted at age 17 for indecent assault, details unspecified, marking the start of his criminal history. This was one of seven prior convictions for 13 offences spanning 1979–2007.
On February 18, 2015, Palmer, aged 52, was sentenced at Peterborough Crown Court to 20 months in prison for twice breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO) and a community order. The SOPO, imposed in October 2014 for prior breaches, banned him from unsupervised contact with minors and certain internet activities. On December 29, 2014, he breached it by visiting a mother and her daughter unannounced, without disclosing his convictions, as required. The mother was unaware of his history.
The Labour Party expelled Palmer following this conviction, and local councillors (e.g., Jo Johnson, Nazim Khan, Richard Knowles) distanced themselves, claiming ignorance of his criminal past. Lisa Forbes, the parliamentary candidate, declined to comment despite media inquiries, prompting criticism from the Peterborough Liberal Democrats and Conservative leader Joe Cooney, who alleged a Labour cover-up.
In November 2015, Palmer was jailed again at Huntingdon Crown Court for four years after pleading guilty to sexually grooming a teenage boy. The court heard he engaged in online communications with the boy, sending explicit messages and images, constituting grooming behaviour. This occurred while Palmer was on bail or shortly after his 2015 sentencing, indicating continued offending.
Graham Pearson - Labour Party. Councillor and Lord Mayor of Rossendale, Lancashire and Hareholme ward councillor. He was a governor at Staghills Nursery and Newchurch CE Primary.
In March 2008, he was caught possessing child pornography following a police investigation.
On September 10, 2007, Lancashire Police arrested Pearson after discovering indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children in his possession.
Pearson was initially bailed pending further inquiries but later received a police caution for the offence in March 2008, as reported by the Lancashire Telegraph.
He received no jail time.
*Graeme Pearson, MSP, has zero connection to this matter whatsoever.
Keith Potts - Labour Party. Councillor for the Urpeth ward and Chairman of the board of governors at West Pelton Primary School near Chester-le-Street, County Durham. He was the Chairman of the board of governors at West Pelton Primary School.
Potts was arrested on November 12, 2008, after authorities discovered 24 indecent images of children on his home computer. Potts remained in his post as a school governor until his first appearance at Consett Magistrates Court on February 9, 2010, a full two years after his initial arrest.
At Consett Magistrates' Court, Potts entered no plea, but he was ultimately found guilty of 13 counts of making indecent images of children.
As part of the caution, he was required to sign the sex offenders' register for two years.
He received no jail time.
Terry Power - Labour Party. Councillor in Dagenham, London, representing the Goresbrook ward on Barking and Dagenham Council.
Before Power was prosecuted, a breakdown between locals and the mainstream press fully collapsed when, in 1998, The Independent ran a story that accused locals concerned about paedophilia of being "far right."
The article begins, "Neo-fascist activists are exploiting public concern about convicted paedophiles being released unsupervised into the community by infiltrating parents' pressure groups. Members of extreme right-wing organisations, including the British National Party, the British arm of the Ku Klux Klan and the National Democrats (a breakaway faction of the National Front), have become involved with unsuspecting parents seeking tougher laws."
Just a year later in 1999, Power was convicted for sexual offences against three young boys, aged 8, 9, and 10.
The offences included sexually abusing two boys (aged 10 and 9) and subjecting them to humiliating "photo shoots" involving naked poses. The third boy (aged 8) was not physically abused but endured what court witnesses described as "the most degenerate sexual degradation of any human being, let alone a child." The sources do not specify the exact nature of this degradation but note it was deeply traumatic.
Power targeted vulnerable children from single-parent families, roaming Dagenham streets to gain their trust before luring them to his home for the attacks. Police apprehended him at his residence, and the jury was shown photographs he took of the victims, described as "sickening." He resigned from his councillor role in 1999 upon arrest.
Residents believed his case was downplayed by local newspapers, allegedly to prevent vigilante attacks against Power, known as the "Beast of Dagenham" in media and community circles.
He received 2 years and 6 months in prison.
Alan Prescott - Labour Party. Councillor for Havering and former mayor of Tower Hamlets. He also served as a school governor at Marion Richardson Primary School in Stepney, east London.
Prescott was found guilty of indecently assaulting four boys in his care between 1970 and 1980. At the time of the offences, he was the superintendent of St Leonard's Children's Home in Hornchurch, Essex, managed by Tower Hamlets Council.
Prescott, who also served as a magistrate and later became assistant director of social services at Tower Hamlets, admitted to the charges at the Old Bailey in October 2001.
He received two years in prison.
Abdul-Majid Rahman - Labour Party. Councillor for Newport City Council's Victoria ward.
On February 17, 2025, Rahman was found guilty of indecent assault and sexual assault against a child under 13. His victims were aged between four and six when he abused them.
This case emerged after a previous conviction related to possession of child abuse material, including material of children as young as 10 being raped.
In October 2022, police raided Rahman's home. Over 100 child abuse images and films were found on an iPhone and Apple laptop. For those offences, Rahman had been jailed for three years and eight months.
Rahman pleaded guilty to possessing and distributing images of children, including Category A, B, and C images, between 2005 and 2021. Rahman shared child abuse material online, including via Facebook, and discussed related fantasies with other paedophiles.
It was after being released from prison that he was reported to the police again for sexually attacking minors.
Following a trial at Cardiff Crown Court, Rahman was found guilty of sexually assaulting a girl under 13 by touching and indecent assault on a girl under 14. The assaults occurred when Rahman was aged between 12 and 20, and the victims were between four and six years old. The jury could not reach a verdict on a third charge of causing/inciting a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity without penetration, which was discharged.
One victim described the abuse as leaving her "ruined," detailing profound emotional and psychological damage.
Rahman was ordered to register as a sex offender for life and received a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO)
He was sentenced to four years imprisonment, with an extended licence period of four years. He was required to serve two-thirds of the custodial part of the sentence before he could be considered for parole.
Ian Rankin - Labour Party activist and council candidate.
Police raided Rankin's home in Haggs, Stirlingshire, on the same day he was standing for election in the Labour-held Lambert Ward for Falkirk Council in the 2003 local elections, where he came second to the SNP.
Rankin was caught with a collection of 45 video clips containing some of the most severe child sexual abuse material police had encountered, described as "the worst paedophile material found by Central Scotland Police."
The content included scenes of young children, some as young as six, being tied up, beaten, sodomised, and raped. Some of the children were affixed to posts or ceiling beams during the abuse.
At Falkirk Sheriff Court, Rankin admitted his guilt. During sentencing, he was required to sign the sex offenders registry for a period of seven years.
He received three months in jail.
Neil Redrup - Labour Party. Councillor in Gosport, Hampshire, and a Ministry of Defence database manager.
Redrup set up a hidden camera in an airing cupboard to secretly film a woman and two teenage girls (aged 14 and 16) using his bathroom toilet between January and December 2005. He also admitted to opening a pornographic email in front of a child, allowing the child to see its contents.
Redrup erased the videos after watching them, but police seized his computer during a raid, uncovering evidence.
The court heard that Redrup regularly hosted parties at his home with a "never-ending free supply of alcohol" and invited teenagers, creating opportunities for his offences. The 14-year-old victim viewed him as a father figure.
Redrup was placed on the sex offenders register.
He was sentenced to four months in prison.
John Robert Reynolds - Labour Party. Councillor.
Reynolds was arrested in July 2022 for attempting to meet a 14-year-old boy. The arrest was part of a sting operation with an undercover officer posing as a minor on Grindr.
Reynolds received a 10-year placement on the Sex Offender Register, a five-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order, and was ordered to complete 20 rehabilitation activity days.
He received no jail time.
Keith Rogers - Labour Party. Councillor and school governor in Droitwich, Worcestershire. He also served as a governor at Westlands First School and Wychbold First School.
In October 2003, Rogers was convicted for possessing nearly 2,000 indecent images of children on his personal computer, uncovered during Operation Ore, a police investigation into child pornography. He pleaded guilty and was fined £5,000 (£2,500 for possessing indecent photographs and £2,500 for images on his computer) by Worcester Magistrates.
Rogers had also been caught sexually communicating with and attempting to meet an individual on Grindr whom he believed to be a 14-year-old boy. The child was a police officer.
At Carlisle Crown Court, Rogers pleaded guilty to attempting to communicate sexually with a child after an alternative charge, that he tried to arrange the commission of a child sex offence, was abandoned by the prosecution.
Despite his conviction, he was offered honorary membership of a community association in Droitwich post-conviction. Locals were profoundly outraged.
*The Labour Party has two officials named "Keith Rogers" The second, Mr Rogers of Anglesey, has no connection whatsoever to this matter.
Lord Ahmed of Rotherham - Labour Party Councillor in Rotherham. He also served as a magistrate. Ahmed was nominated for a life peerage by the Labour Party under Prime Minister Tony Blair's government in 1998.
In January 2022, Ahmed was found guilty at Sheffield Crown Court of three sexual offences: two counts of attempted rape of a girl and one count of buggery (a legal term in use at the time for anal rape) against a boy, both under 13 years old.
The cases related events that took place in Rotherham in the 1970s. His two older brothers, Mohammed Farouq and Mohammed Tariq, were also charged with indecent assault against the same boy but were deemed unfit to stand trial; a jury still found they committed the acts alleged.
In February 2022, Ahmed was sentenced to five years and six months in prison. In March 2023, the Court of Appeal reduced Ahmed's sentence to two years and six months. The appeal judges, including Lord Chief Justice Lord Burnett, cut the 'buggery' sentence from three and a half years to six months but left the two-year terms for the attempted rapes unchanged.
In Julie Bindel's original reporting on his trial, she was told Ahmed had been "the most powerful Pakistani in the UK." Separately from his convictions on child sexual offences, Ahmed holds views that ought to preclude him from being a British citizen, never mind a member of the House of Lords. In November 2012, Ahmed claimed that the attempted assassination of Malala Yousafzai by the Pakistani Taliban might have been orchestrated by unnamed official elements within Pakistan to discredit the Taliban. The Pakistani Taliban (Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan) publicly claimed responsibility for the attack, citing Malala's advocacy for education as their motive, which they viewed as "pro-West" and anti-Islamic. One would think the Taliban's own words on the subject of female education would be sufficient to disqualify them from good opinion.
Tim Russo - American political operative who worked as a Labour Party adviser in Britain.
He was not found guilty of any crime in a British court, as he was never prosecuted in the United Kingdom; however, he was convicted in the United States in 2002 for offences related to attempting to solicit sex with a minor.
Russo pleaded guilty in Cleveland, Ohio, to one count of importuning and one count of attempting to disseminate matter harmful to juveniles. This stemmed from an incident in August 2001 where he engaged in sexually explicit online conversations with an undercover FBI agent posing as a 13-year-old boy. Russo sent the boy pornography and arranged to meet him at a hotel, leading to his arrest upon arrival.
He was sentenced to four months of house arrest, one year of probation, and counselling, avoiding prison time.
Russo's involvement with the Labour Party came later, during the 2005 UK General Election, when he worked as a Visits Coordinator in the East Midlands, arranging campaign visits for senior figures like Home Secretary Charles Clarke. The Labour Party paid him £2,560 for "consultancy services" despite his lack of a UK work visa.
Joseph Shaw - Labour Party. Councillor for the Wigan Metropolitan Council
Police found more than 2,000 images on Shaw's computer, including Level 5.
A search of his property also turned up a Smith & Wesson revolver with ammunition.
In his online communications with others of his kind, Shaw crowed that he was a 'Paedo Master Trainer' and gave advice on abusing children. He routinely admitted to and detailed his experiences sexually abusing children.
Shaw had a specific fascination with the sexual abuse of babies. The majority of his collection featured babies between infants and two-year-olds.
Shaw also expressed an interest in necrophilia.
Shaw installed extensive CCTV at his home in Swinley and often spoke of his desire to kidnap children off the street.
He was on bail for the image possession charges when police uncovered communications between him and other paedophiles about watching girls in the street and wanting to stage a kidnap.
Shaw pleaded guilty to possession of 3,114 Category A images, 1,729 Category B images, 2,251 Category C images, 105 prohibited images of children and 98 extreme pornographic images involving people and animals.
He admitted to the distribution of five Category A, five Category B and two Category C indecent images and pleaded guilty to violating a SHPO the police had secured during their investigation.
It emerged during the trial that Shaw had been taking photographs of children in public without their parent's knowledge or consent.
Shaw was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years.
For the firearm possession charge, Shaw received a 5-year jail term. He received 1 year for possession of child abuse material.
Les Sheppard - Labour Party. Councillor for Coxhoe in County Durham.
Sheppard was convicted in 2004 of ten counts of indecent assault on young girls. Sheppard, then 71, lured his victims, girls aged between 9 and 13, into his gold Porsche, drove them to remote locations, and sexually assaulted them.
Sheppard was sentenced at Teesside Crown Court and required to sign the sex offenders register for ten years.
He received two years in prison.
Manish Sood - Labour Party. Councillor in Leicester and a prospective parliamentary candidate for North West Norfolk
In 2012, at Leicester Crown Court, he admitted to one count of sexual assault and two counts of causing or inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity. The crimes involved posing as a masseuse on Gumtree to lure victims.
He sexually assaulted a 22-year-old woman by kissing her bottom during a supposed "massage" session at his home, claiming it was "therapy."
He also offered money to two teenage girls, aged 14 and 15, to come to his residence for "massages," pestering them for sexual activity.
Sood bombarded both girls with calls and messages. The 14-year-old received 27 phone calls and 15 text messages despite her refusals. The 15-year-old received 26 texts and 152 phone calls over three days, offering "physical tantra," proposing to pick her up from school, and suggesting she bring "toe rings and condoms."
Sood received a three-year community order with supervision, was banned from contact with children under 16, and was ordered to attend a sex offender group work program, avoiding prison time. His mother - former Leicester Labour councillor and Britain's first Asian female Lord Mayor -stood by him in court.
He received no jail time.
Richard Smith - Labour Party. Councillor for the Clover Hill ward on Pendle Council and also served on Nelson Town Council. Additionally, he served as Pendle Labour Party's 'Young Labour' officer.
On August 26, 2015, Smith pleaded guilty at Burnley Magistrates' Court to three counts of making indecent images of children (Category A, B, and C) between July 24 and August 20, 2014. He was arrested on November 12, 2014, after police suspected him of downloading and viewing indecent images of underage boys.
At trial, the court heard that police found three Category A videos, including one depicting a six-month-old baby and a seven-year-old boy being sexually abused.
Smith claimed the downloads were accidental, having occurred while searching for gay pornography, and that he deleted the files. He had previously reported finding similar images years earlier, which authorities accepted as accidental. However, one file was accessed four days before the police raid, undermining his claim.
He resigned from Pendle Council in December 2014, citing "personal reasons," without disclosing his arrest.
Smith was placed on the sex offenders register, sentenced to a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years, with two years of probation supervision and an order to attend an internet sex offenders' treatment program.
He received no jail time.
Conservative leader Joe Cooney accused Labour of a cover-up, alleging they knew more about Smith's arrest than admitted, given Pendle's focus on child exploitation prevention. Labour leader Mohammed Iqbal denied knowledge beyond Smith's vague mention of a police investigation for personal reasons.
Susan Smith - Labour Party. Councillor for St Martins ward in the London Borough of Lambeth.
Smith's crimes took place over three weeks in July 1991 at the Waterloo flat of her lover, Ronald Lineker, a 53-year-old man reported at the time as having what were reported at the time as "transvestite tendencies."
The victim, unhappy at home, had moved into Lineker's flat, where the abuse occurred. Smith, who once sat on Lambeth's social services committee, missed council meetings to participate in sexually abusing the child.
Lineker was convicted of two counts of indecent assault and six counts of unlawful sexual intercourse with the same minor, receiving a three-year prison sentence.
Smith was found guilty of five counts of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old girl in September 1992.
She received 18 months in prison.
Toren Smith - Labour Party. London Lambeth councillor representing the Tulse Hill ward.
Smith was found in possession of 94,000 images and videos of abused kids. He was looking at porn when police raided his house.
Detectives searched Smith's home on May 21 2010, after inquiries revealed Smith had, on two occasions, paid to download material which included a number of Level 5 images and footage.
He was sentenced to 3 months imprisonment for the Level 1 - 3 images, 6 months for the Level 4 images, and 12 months for the Level 5 images - all to run concurrently. His sentences were suspended for 24 months.
Smith was placed on the Sex Offender Register for a minimum of five years and ordered to pay £1,000 costs.
He received no jail time.
Roger Spackman - Labour Party. Councillor for the Newtown and St Leonard's ward on Exeter City Council. He also worked in a secure children's home.
In October 2016, Devon and Cornwall Police arrested Spackman, aged 47, at his home in College Road, Exeter, on suspicion of making indecent photographs of children. The arrest followed an investigation into his online activity on an illegal chat network, where he was tracked downloading child abuse images. Police seized his devices, uncovering a significant collection of indecent material.
On July 24, 2017, Spackman pleaded guilty at Exeter Crown Court to three counts of possessing 290,672 indecent images of children (Categories A, B, and C) between 2012 and 2016 across 68 devices. Additionally, he was charged with possessing a prohibited image and possessing 48 extreme pornographic images involving an animal.
The court heard that Spackman's collection was one of the largest ever encountered by Devon and Cornwall Police, stored on multiple devices.
Included were several hundred Category A images depicting severe abuse of children as young as three.
From the BBC, "Spackman had got involved in the online chats because he was trying to come to terms with abuse in his own childhood, and at times pretended to be an abused young girl, the court was told. Judge Peter Johnson told Spackman: "In essence, you were undertaking some form of therapeutic role-play in which others invited you to take the part of the victim and sent you indecent photographs to assist in the role-play."
On August 18, 2017, Judge Geoffrey Mercer QC sentenced Spackman to a 10-month prison term, suspended for two years, with requirements to complete 200 hours of unpaid work, a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) restricting internet use, and placement on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
He received no jail time.
David Spooner - Labour Party. Councillor in North Lincolnshire.
Spooner was charged with multiple sexual offences, including two counts of buggery with boys under 16 and 18 years old, one count of indecent assault on a male and soliciting in a public place for immoral purposes.
He was found guilty of masturbating in front of two boys under ten years old in his home after luring them inside. This incident was the primary basis for his conviction.
He received a one-year prison sentence.
*There are two men named David Spooner of the Labour Party. The second David Spooner of Overstone Parish Council has no association with these crimes whatsoever.
Mark Tann - Labour Party. Activist from Whitstable, Kent.
He was convicted in January 2003 of serious sexual offences against children. He pleaded guilty at Canterbury Crown Court to 24 charges, which included two counts of raping a four-year-old girl on separate occasions and multiple counts of indecency with a nine-year-old girl.
Tann had gained the trust of a single mother by posing as a babysitter, advertising his services in a shop window and falsely claiming affiliation with the NSPCC (National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children).
He further bolstered his credibility by showing a photo of himself with then-Prime Minister Tony Blair and Cherie Blair, whom he had met at Labour Party functions.
Tann's attacks on the nine-year-old involved waking her repeatedly to force her to watch hardcore pornography while subjecting her to indecent acts, which continued until she told her mother, "Mummy, he's doing rude things to me."
Tann received 15 years in prison, and the judge noted Tann's exploitation of his Labour Party connections to impress parents.
Neil Taggart - Labour Party. Councillor for the Garforth and Swillington ward on Leeds City Council. He was appointed Lord Mayor of Leeds for the 2012–2013 term, a ceremonial role, and was a retired West Yorkshire Police sergeant, having served 30 years.
On September 23, 2016, West Yorkshire Police raided Taggart's home in Marlowe Crescent, Garforth, under a search warrant, uncovering evidence of child sex offences. Taggart was arrested and charged with multiple counts related to possessing and making indecent images of children.
On July 4, 2017, at Leeds Crown Court, Taggart pleaded guilty to 12 counts of making 37 indecent images of children (Categories A, B, and C) and one count of possessing extreme pornography. The offences spanned 2008 to 2016, with police finding 37 images on his devices, including Category A images of children as young as six being abused. The "extreme pornography" was bestiality.
Taggart was sentenced to 32 months in prison (two years and eight months), with half to be served before release on licence, a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) restricting internet use, and placement on the sex offenders register for life.
Liam Temple - Labour Party. Councillor and ex-Lord Mayor of Halton in Cheshire,
Temple was convicted in 2004 of inciting a child under 16 to commit an act of gross indecency. The incident occurred when Temple, then 58, invited a 12-year-old girl to his home office to play computer games while her father, who had come to see him on council business, stepped out. Temple offered the girl money, £5 to see her breasts and £10 to see "down there" in an attempt to molest her.
The girl later testified via video link at Chester Crown Court, recounting how Temple said, "If I let him touch me, he would give me the money," and repeatedly assured her, "I'm not going to hurt you. Name your price."
It emerged during the trial that Temple had been tipped off about possible police action by a friend who, in turn, had been told by a Runcorn police officer. Temple admitted he had been warned about his arrest. "A friend's friend is a police officer who works in Halton, and they had a conversation about these allegations," Temple told the judge.
At the time of his charging, Halton Borough Council refused Temple's case and said only 'These are personal matters and are not matters within the responsibility of the council."
Temple was sentenced to six months in prison and ordered to sign the sex offenders' register.
Michael Tombs - Labour Party. Council nominee in Hereford, Herefordshire, selected as a candidate for Herefordshire Council elections. He had also worked as a social worker and primary school governor at King Edward Primary School in Thorne.
Tombs had a training company called Michael Tombs Childcare Services, working with disabled children and was once employed as a trainer by Common Threads, a not-for-profit training organisation specialising in children's play.
He was convicted for making indecent images of children, including some depicting rape, which he downloaded during trips with disabled children under his care.
He received a six-week prison sentence.
The case raised serious concerns about oversight by Doncaster Council, previously labelled "dangerous" by a children's watchdog due to abuse-related deaths in the area. The 15-month delay before the trial, during which parents were not informed, further fueled criticism of the handling of the situation.
Mark Trotter - Labour Party. Activist and social worker employed by Liverpool City Council and later Hackney Council.
Following his death in 1995 from an AIDS-related illness at age 34, allegations emerged that he had sexually abused children in care homes in both cities. These allegations led to an independent inquiry into Hackney Council's handling of the case.
Trotter worked as a social worker in Liverpool (New Heys Children's Home) and later in Hackney (Trowbridge House). Concerns about his behaviour were raised in Liverpool, where colleagues noted "strange activities," leading to his departure to Hackney. In Hackney, he continued working with vulnerable children, reportedly abusing at least six young people, with estimates suggesting up to 12 victims over his 14-year career.
Specific allegations included Trotter plying children with alcohol and sweets, entering their bedrooms at night, and sexually assaulting them. Some sources claim he raped children, with one victim, aged 11, coerced into silence out of fear. Several children were tested for HIV due to Trotter's AIDS diagnosis, though results remain confidential.
Trotter died in July 1995, two weeks before Merseyside Police arrived in London to arrest him for abusing five boys in Liverpool during 1980–81.
Hackney Council received four complaints about Trotter's behaviour by the late 1980s but failed to suspend him, partly due to his influential role as a trade unionist and Labour activist. A 1998 independent inquiry led by John Barratt criticised this as "impropriety" driven by a "climate of fear" and incompetence, not a deliberate political cover-up.
After Trotter's death, Hackney's internal investigation, led by retiring manager Len Redley, was deemed inadequate. It missed deadlines, lost contact with Redley, and produced a "worthless" seven-page report that failed to trace most potential victims. Of 337 children in Trotter's care, only 175 were contacted, with 60 responding; 10% confirmed abuse. An NSPCC inquiry later verified at least six victims.
The Barratt Report highlighted Hackney's "vicious, poisonous" political culture and trade union dominance, which discouraged disciplining staff like Trotter. It also noted a warning in 1988 by assistant social services director Dinah Morley to a friend (Labour activist Denise Robson) not to use Trotter as a babysitter, yet no broader action was taken to protect children.
Peter Tuffley - Labour Party. Adviser and regional organiser in the North West of England aide to Hazel Blears, who was a Home Office Minister responsible for crime and policing. Described as a "rising star" within the party, he was a former politics student at Liverpool University with ambitions of becoming an MP.
Tuffley was convicted of sexual grooming on the internet and child abduction following a six-day trial at Bolton Crown Court in 2006. The offences involved grooming a 13-year-old boy from Bolton, whom he met through the Faceparty website and dating chatroom. On March 12, 2005, Tuffley picked the boy up from outside a school in Greater Manchester, drove him to his flat in Liverpool, and they spent the night together. The boy alleged they kissed and cuddled in bed, though Tuffley denied sexual activity, and the jury cleared him of that charge. Evidence showed Tuffley called the boy "cute" and "babe" in messages, indicating intent despite the boy's profile suggesting he was underage.
Tuffley was sentenced to one year and three months in prison.
Gregory Vincent - Labour Party. Councillor in Newham. London and was a school governor.
Vincent was charged with sharing images of child abuse on an online network. He also pleaded guilty to six charges of making and distributing indecent images of a child.
The images contained children as young as eight.
During sentencing, Judge Christopher Hardy told Vincent: "This was very unpleasant material but by no means the worst kind the courts see from time to time. The possession of this material is the result, as you put it, of depression and boredom rather than perversion."
Vincent was given a two-year community rehabilitation order.
He received no jail time.
Graham White - Labour Party. Labour Party councillor for the Porthill ward on Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council in Staffordshire.
On October 13, 2004, White pleaded guilty at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court to 10 specimen charges of making indecent photographs or pseudo-photographs of children. The offences involved possessing child pornography, with police discovering the images during a search of his home following a tip-off.
White was sentenced to a three-month prison term, suspended for two years, and ordered to register as a sex offender for five years.
He received no jail time.
Thomas Wright - Labour Party. Councillor for the Pennywell ward on Sunderland City Council. He was Chairman of the Tyne and Wear Fire and Rescue Authority and a local community centre for 25 years. He worked as a taxi driver and volunteered with the Sunderland Sea Cadets, where some offences occurred.
In January 2018, Northumbria Police arrested Wright on suspicion of historical child sex offences following a report from a former sea cadet. The investigation focused on incidents from the 1980s when Wright was a cadet volunteer. He was released on bail pending further inquiries.
On July 24, 2018, Wright was formally charged with 10 counts of indecent assault on a male and two counts of buggery (historical terms for sexual offences under the Sexual Offences Act 1956) relating to two male victims under 16 between 1982 and 1987. The charges were filed after additional victims came forward.
On February 25, 2020, at Newcastle Crown Court, Wright, aged 67, was convicted after a trial of 10 counts of indecent assault on two boys, aged 12 to 15, in the 1980s, during his time as a sea cadet volunteer. The jury found him not guilty on the two buggery charges due to insufficient evidence. The court heard Wright abused his position to groom and assault the boys, offering gifts and trips, with one victim describing lasting psychological trauma.
On March 27, 2020, Wright was sentenced to seven years in prison, with a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) and lifelong placement on the sex offenders register.
The Conservative Party, including its Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party branch, has faced a few cases of elected officials charged with sexual offences against children, revealing a pattern in how the party handles such scandals.
Action from the party is consistently swift, involving immediate expulsion of members under investigation. The pattern can be tracked in reviewing the cases I was able to discover below.
Michael Jamieson - Conservative Party. Councillor for Perth and Kinross Council andformer teacher. Jamieson was found in possession of child sexual abuse images and videos in material containing children as young as five. He was placed on the sex offenders registry for three years and given 250 hours of unpaid work.
During sentencing, Sheriff Wood said:
“As someone who has been very prominent in the community one way or another, this will have caused you a distinct amount of embarrassment. It may be argued that your loss of position in society may be punishment enough, but it does seem to me that because of the nature of the charge – including the possession and retention of these images – that there ought to be some further punishment element.”
He did not receive jail time.
At the time of Jamieson’s arrest, members of the media reached out to both the council and the Conservative Party. Neither were aware of the investigation. Jamieson did not resign, nor did he resign from the council until his court appearance in August of 2017. In stark contrast, upon learning of the investigation, the Conservative Party immediately expelled Jamieson.
Ian McKellar - Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party. Councillor for the Wirral and governor for a girl school.
On May 11, 2006, police raided McKellar’s home and discovered a collection of child abuse images. The court reports that McKellar was in possession of Level 1 material.
Descriptions of the images were of underage age children posed erotically. If McKellar has additional material of a higher level of abuse, they were not made public at the time.
After Mc Kellar’s arrest, a representative from the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party informed The National McKellar was expelled from the party “as soon as [the party] became aware of the matter.”
McKellar was disavowed by at least one of his children, with a daughter referring to him as “despicable.” He was subject to a community order, made to sign the sex offenders register for a period of 10 years and ordered to attend a support group for sex offenders. He was banned from working with children for life.
Peter O’Brien - Conservative Party. Councillor for Welwyn Hatfield Borough Council.
In 2012, Charles pleaded guilty at St Albans Crown Court to 15 counts of possessing and making indecent images of children. Police found 1,138 images on his computer, including 24 at Level 4 (second most serious) and one at Level 5 (most serious), covering offences from 2006 to 2011. The images were discovered after a police raid prompted by intelligence about his online activities. Charles was sentenced to a three-year community order, including a sex offender treatment program, and placed on the sex offenders register for five years.
He received no jail time.
O’Brien’s local paper, The Welwyn Hatfield Times, was first on to his case. In their initial reporting, O’Brien was referred to as “former Tory Councillor Peter O’Brien.” The Conservative Party had already removed him from all positions of authority within the party and expelled him immediately upon learning of the investigation before the press had gotten wind of it.
Andrew Lamont - Conservative Party. Kensington and Chelsea councillor for Norland
ward in north Kensington.
Lamont was reported to police by his wife for possession of child abuse images.
The party expelled him during the investigation.
Lamont, who is partially sighted, uses a cane and has been a patient of the Moorfields Eye Hospital since he was a five year old, maintained his innocence during the trial.
Lamont claimed he downloaded pornography, but after downloading images, he had to use magnifying software before being able to decipher the content of the images.
In relating Lamont’s testimony, Prosecutor Gino Connor told the media, ‘He explained that pictures, for him, were a bit of a guess.’
Lamont was ordered to pay £5,270 costs and must sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years.
Despite the complicated nature of Lamont’s case due to his various medical disabilities, the Conservative Party was steadfastly uninterested in defending Lamont and upheld his expulsion.
MP Imran Ahmad Khan, Conservative MP for Wakefield.
Khan was convicted in April 2022 of sexually assaulting a 15-year-old boy in 2008 before he became an MP. The incident involved plying the boy with gin at a party in Staffordshire.
Khan applied to have the case heard anonymously on religious grounds. His reasoning was that homosexuality and alcohol consumption are haram in his religion, and the allegations would reflect poorly on him within his community. Khan did not say the same of the allegation of paedophilic rape.
Khan was found guilty, showed no remorse, and was sentenced to 18 months at Southwark Crown Court.
Khan had the whip suspended when the trial began, but he was not formally expelled until his conviction was declared.
Speculation both within and outside the Conservative Party that Khan was treated with kid gloves due to both his Pakistani ethnicity and religious affiliation as a member of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Jama messianic movement became heated during his case. Conservative members expressed alarm that he was not removed as soon as the allegations came to light, as the party has a history of doing.
Khan had a singular defender from the party, MP Crispin Blunt, chair of the Parliamentary Committee on LGBTQ+ rights. After Blunt’s statements, several members resigned in protest and disgust, forcing Blunt to retract and apologise. I was able to track down two further former Tories convicted for possession. David Smith, a Felixstowe town and Suffolk Coastal district councillor and David Lee formerly of Mayor of Chelmsford.
Smith stepped down before the investigation became public. He was later convicted of possession.
Lee was reported to the police by the Chelmsford Council, the head of which was Conservative Roy Whitehead. When his fellow members discovered he had been using his work laptop to access the material they turned in all of his devices to authorities and briefed the community on further action.
A Tory spokesman said:
“The Conservative group of Chelmsford Borough Council has immediately suspended councillor David Lee as a member of the group pending the outcome of a police investigation into his activities.”
Notable is the stark contrast between both the size of the offending population between the Labour and Conservative Parties as well as the cultural response from within the organisations. With the exception of the Imran Khan case, the Conservative Party have demonstrated swift repudiation of offenders as well as a willingness to prioritise the safety and concerns of citizens.
The Labour Party by contrast has continually found itself faced with official after official charged with sex crimes against children. Responses from the Labour Party are sluggish and do little to dispel the concerns from locals, who, as in the case of The Beast of Dagenham are more likely to face opprobrium and accusations of holding “far-right” beliefs than they are likely to receive anything approximating assurance or support.
Within the Green Party, the case of Aimee Knight neé Challenor stands out.
Before joining the Green Party, Aimee, a trans-identifying biological male, was an activist in LGBTQ+ circles and a staunch advocate of reforming the Gender Recognition Act to both enable and fastback gender reassignment on public documents.
Attracted to the Greens for their highly progressive stance on trans issues, Aimee joined the party and became their equality spokesperson in 2016 and, by 2017, was part of the national executive committee. Aimee was often described as a rising within the party.
In 2017, Aimee ran to be the party deputy leader. David Challenor, his father, served as his election agent in that race and again in local elections when Aimee ran in Coventry in 2018.
Previous to both Aimee’s elections, David Challenor (also a member of the Green Party) was arrested by West Midlands Police for raping and torturing a 10-year-old girl in the attic of the Coventry home where both Challenors lived.
David Challenor tied the 10-year-old to a beam in the attic and strung her from the ceiling. He raped the child. He electrocuted the child. He raped the child while electrocuting the child. He carried out these acts while wearing a diaper and pretending, at times, to behave like a little girl referred to as “Lucy”.
When police raided the attic, they found adult-sized girls dresses, whips, lubricant, ropes, and candles.
David was on bail while he worked on both elections for the Green Party as Aimee’s elector.
David Challenor was later convicted at Warwick Crown Court of 20 offences, including sexual assault, taking indecent photographs of a child, rape of a girl aged 10 and false imprisonment. He received a 22-year jail sentence.
A representative from the Green Party told The Guardian newspaper in 2019:
“Those in the party who were told about David Challenor’s activities saw the issue as primarily a communications one – about protecting the reputation of the party.”
Aimee was eventually suspended from the Greens, though Aimee remained a member of the Scottish Green Party and the Green Party in Northern Ireland.
In 2018, Aimee attempted to join and was admitted to the Liberal Democrat Party.
In 2019, Aimee was suspended after Aimee’s then fiancé, now husband Nathaniel Knight, wrote on Twitter, “I fantasise about children having sex sometimes with adults sometimes with other children sometimes kidnapped and forced into bad situations.” Both Aimee and Nathan were open about their shared diaper fetish and interest in cartoons featuring children and posted photographs of themselves wearing children clothing.
When Aimee initially applied to join the Liberal Democrats, they were aware of the circumstances surrounding Aimee expulsion from the Greens.
A Liberal Democrats spokesperson told Left Foot Forward:
“Aimee Challenor has made an application to join the Liberal Democrats. The Liberal Democrats have an approval process for new members as set out in the party constitution, and a member is only accepted when that process is complete. We are aware of the circumstances surrounding Aimee’s resignation from the Green Party and their ongoing investigation, and those matters will be taken on board as part of the membership approval process.”
Dan Norris, former MP and West of England CA Mayor likely to join this list too.