Leon Brittan Paedophile Information Exchange: Leon Brittan 'opposed banning pro-child sex campaign group'

Leon Brittan opposed banning a notorious pro-paedophile group, new papers suggest.

Released after 32 years, the documents show an MP wrote to the late Home Secretary calling for the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) to be outlawed – but his plea was rebuffed.

Tory Geoffrey Dickens insisted he ‘shall not rest’ until PIE was illegal and he was happy to put ‘tremendous pressure’ on Margaret Thatcher’s government.

But when he met Mr Dickens to discuss the letter, Brittan apparently preferred to see ‘how the present law stood’.

According to the BBC, which obtained minutes of the meeting under freedom of information laws, Lord Brittan also objected to a ban on PIE.

The minutes read: “There was however the fundamental objection to banning an organisation that if members of the organisation were doing a mischief, it was the mischief which ought to be banned, not the organisation.