LABOUR’S Patricia Hewitt last night apologised after The Sun confronted her

for backing a paedophile plan for the age of consent to be TEN in certain

cases.

The ex-Health Secretary put her name to a document that also wanted to

legalise incest. She and Jack Dromey, now a Labour MP, were members of a

committee recommending a revolutionary change in child sex laws.

Our investigation showed how she backed the work of the Paedophile Information

Exchange (PIE) in the 1970s and 1980s. She said: “I got it wrong on PIE and

I apologise for having done so.”

The call to lower the age of consent came in 1976, when Ms Hewitt was general

secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties (NCCL) — whose links

with PIE have provoked a storm.

Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman and her MP husband Jack Dromey were also

NCCL members, but this is the first time one of the party’s politicians has

been shown to directly endorse extreme views on child sex.

Ms Hewitt’s is the sole name on an NCCL press release, issued in March 1976,

which says: “NCCL proposes that the age of consent should be lowered to 14,

with special provision for situations where the partners are close in age,

or where consent of a child over ten can be proved.”

The press release relates to an NCCL report on sexual law reforms. Ms Hewitt

adds: “The report argues that the crime of incest should be abolished. It

says, ‘In our view, no benefit accrues to anyone by making incest a crime

when committed between mutually consenting persons over the age of consent’.”

The Sun has also obtained the minutes of an NCCL executive committee meeting,

held at the Mother Red Cap pub in North London in January 1976.

The meeting was attended by 27 people including Ms Hewitt, her lawyer husband

Bill Birtles, Mr Dromey and Sir Henry Hodge — who was married to former

Labour minister Margaret Hodge until his death in 2009.

The minutes state: “It was agreed that our evidence should propose that if a

partner in a sexual relationship was under ten, s/he is presumed incapable

of consent.

“If the partner is over ten and under 14, there is a rebuttable presumption

that no consent was given, but the defendant should have to prove that the

child consented and understood the nature of the act to which consent was

given.”

Mr Dromey sat on the NCCL executive committee from 1970 to 1979, and Ms Hewitt

was general secretary from 1974 to 1983. Ms Harman was not at the 1976

meeting, but became the group’s legal officer two years later.

Another document seen by The Sun shows how in 1981 Ms Hewitt was still backing

PIE’s “right to exist” — even though its convicted paedophile chairman Tom

O’Carroll had just been found guilty of conspiring to corrupt public morals

over magazine adverts.

Ms Hewitt was contacted over the conviction of O’Carroll, who had previously

been a member of NCCL’s Gay Rights Committee, and said in her reply: “We of

course continue to defend that organisation’s right to exist.” Ms Hewitt

later became press secretary to Labour leader Neil Kinnock and was an MP for

13 years until 2010, serving as Health Secretary in the Labour government.

She now holds lucrative directorships with a clutch of big businesses, and is

thought to earn nearly £250,000 a year.

The former Leicester West MP is also a director at the Katha Children’s Trust,

an organisation that works with kids in India.

Campaigners last night slammed Ms Hewitt’s actions as “an outrage”. Peter

Saunders, chief executive of the National Association for People Abused in

Childhood, said: “It’s a good job Patricia Hewitt is not an MP any more.

“Apart from the PIE, nobody in their right mind has ever thought it was a good

idea to reduce the age of consent for children. It was a huge error of

judgment on the part of the NCCL. It’s an outrage that PIE were ever given a

platform.

“If children aged ten were smoking would we reduce the legal age for that? Of

course not.”

Ms Hewitt broke her silence to take responsibility for “mistakes” made at the

NCCL, admitting: “I got it wrong on PIE and I apologise for having done so.”

She said she had been away for the past 12 days as a storm raged over the

links between the NCCL and PIE, adding: “I do not support reducing the age

of consent or legalising incest.”

Ms Hewitt also stressed that she had never condoned the “vile crimes” of child

abusers, saying: “As the NCCL archives demonstrate, I consistently

distinguished between consenting relationships and the abuse of children.”

But she also acknowledged she should have done more to protect the NCCL from

the activities of PIE, which was allowed to join the organisation as an

affiliate member.

She said: “NCCL in the 1970s, along with many others, was naive and wrong to

accept PIE’s claim to be a ‘campaigning and counselling organisation’ that

‘does not promote unlawful acts’.

“As general secretary then, I take responsibility for the mistakes we made. I

should have urged the executive committee to take stronger measures to

protect NCCL’s integrity from the activities of PIE members and

sympathisers, and I deeply regret not having done so.”

Ms Harman this week said she regretted the NCCL’s links with PIE, but insisted

she had “nothing to apologise for” and had never supported paedophiles.

The key players



NATIONAL COUNCIL FOR CIVIL LIBERTIES

CHARITY granted affiliate status to lobbying group Paedophile Information

Exchange (PIE) in the 1970s before booting out its members in 1983. Changed

its name to Liberty and has publicly apologised over the matter.

EX LABOUR MINISTER PATRICIA HEWITT

SERVED nine years as general secretary of the NCCL from 1974-83. As a former

front bencher she led a failed coup against Gordon Brown before 2010

election. Stood down as MP soon after.

EX UNION BOSS MP JACK DROMEY

HARRIET Harman’s husband was chairman of the NCCL in the late 1970s and

insists he campaigned “vigorously” against PIE. A staunch trade unionist, he

is a Labour frontbencher and MP for Birmingham Erdington.

LABOUR DEPUTY LEADER HARRIET HARMAN

JOINED the NCCL as legal officer in 1978 and worked there until 1982. A letter

emerged this week that shows she apparently urged MPs to water down a

proposed ban on child pornography in the late 1970s.

LABOUR LEADER ED MILIBAND

ROSE to leadership in 2010 with the help of Ms Harman and Mr Dromey. Rewarded

her with key frontbench role and made him shadow minister for communities

and local government.

Pathway to a fortune



TONY Blair’s former Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt now rakes in around

£250,000 a year after quitting as a Labour MP.

The Aussie-born mum of two, 65 — whose husband Bill is a senior judge — is

paid £160,000 as a non-executive director at BT. A similar role at Bupa

earns her £52,000. Another £32,800 is estimated to come from being on the

Eurotunnel board.

Previous posts include roles at Barclays, Boots and venture capital firm

Cinven. She is chair of the UK India Business Council and director of Katha,

a non-profit organisation based in India that promotes literacy.

r.phillips@the-sun.co.uk