Explosive new evidence links Patricia Hewitt to paedophile group's calls for age of consent to be lowered to just 10 and that incest should not be a crime

Former Labour cabinet minister was general secretary of NCCL in 1970s

Hewitt says she takes responsibility for the mistakes made at the time



65-year-old adds that NCCL was 'naive and wrong' over links with PIE

But documents cast doubt on claims she never 'condoned' child abusers

Press release in her name argues for age of consent to be slashed and that incest should not be a crime

Jack Dromey denies backing proposal to cut age of consent to 10 despite minutes of meeting saying he was there and that members had 'agreed'

David Cameron believe Miss Hewitt is 'right' to apolgise, piling further pressure on Harriet Harman and her shadow minister husband



'I got it wrong on PIE and I apologise for having done so': Former Labour cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt has apologised for her links to the paedophile group

Explosive documents in Patricia Hewitt's name arguing for the age of sexual consent to be lowered and that incest should be legalised have forced the former Labour minister into a humbling apology.

The former Health Secretary finally said sorry after more official paperwork laid bare the disturbing links between National Council for Civil Liberties and the vile paedophile group that campaigned to allow sex with children.

Miss Hewitt finally apologised when doubt was cast on her claims she had never ‘condoned’ child abusers from the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).

The Labour minister was 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 provisions for situations where the partners are close in age’.



The press release came out as NCCL issued a report on sexual law reforms, The Sun said.



In further remarks, Miss Hewitt added: ‘The report argues that the crime of incest should be abolished. 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 minutes of a meeting held at the Mother Red Cap pub in north London in January 1976 showed further close links between senior Labour figures and calls to legalise sex with children.



The meeting was attended by 27 people - including Miss Hewitt and her lawyer husband Nicholas Birtles, Jack Dromey and Sir Henry Hodge, the husband of 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 10 she/he is presumed incapable of consent.



‘If the partner is over 10 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.’

As the documents emerged the former minister said the NCCL was ‘naive and wrong’ in dealings with the Paedophile Information Exchange and conceded: ‘As General Secretary then, I take responsibility for the mistakes we made.

‘I got it wrong on PIE and I apologise for having done so.’

But Jack Dromey has denied the minutes of the 1976 meeting are correct and he insisted he did not give his approval to a call for the age of sexual consent to be reduced to as low as 10.



'I did not agree with the proposal in February 1976 to lower the age of consent,' said Mr Dromey, now a home affairs spokesman in Ed Miliband's Labour frontbench team.



'I was throughout a resolute opponent of a vile organisation.'



The ex-Cabinet minister had remained silent since the Mail revealed the extraordinary connections between the NCCL and the predatory paedophile group, who wanted the age of consent to be cut to just four.

Earlier this week Labour’s deputy leader Harriet Harman, the NCCL’s former legal officer, belatedly expressed ‘regret’ but refused to apologise over links between the left-wing pressure group and PIE.

DAILY MAIL COMMENT

Yes, it was too long in coming, but Patricia Hewitt has at least had the decency to apologise for offering succour to a group of vile paedophiles while in charge of the National Council for Civil Liberties. Admitting to being ‘naïve’ and ‘wrong’, the ex-Labour Cabinet minister says she takes ‘full responsibility’ for the ‘mistakes we made’.

What a shaming contrast with her friend and NCCL sidekick Harriet Harman, who managed only a grudging expression of ‘regret’. Like so many on the Left, she holds the arrogant, invincible conviction that she can never ever be wrong – no matter how damning the evidence.

Miss Harman maintained she had nothing to apologise for and dismissed the Mail revelations as a ‘politically-motivated smear campaign’.

In contrast, Miss Hewitt – general secretary when PIE was allowed to ‘affiliate’ with the NCCL – said she took responsibility for the mistakes that had been made.

Miss Hewitt, who claimed she had been away for the past 12 days while the controversy raged, said any suggestion that she had condoned or supported the ‘vile crimes’ of child abusers was completely untrue.

But she acknowledged that she should have done more to protect the integrity of the NCCL from the activities of PIE.

Prime Minister David Cameron believes Ms Hewitt's apology was 'the right approach', Number 10 said as Ms Harman remained under pressure to follow her example.



Tory defence minister Anna Soubry told BBC1's Question Time that the Labour deputy leader had handled the story 'very badly'.



Asked if Mr Cameron agreed, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: 'It's a matter for Harriet Harman but the PM thinks that what Liberty, Shami Chakrabarti and Patricia Hewitt have done is the right approach.



'I don't think the PM is going to give Harriet Harman PR advice and expertise. It's a matter for her.'



Ms Chakrabarti, the present director of Liberty - the name later adopted by the NCCL - has described the involvement of PIE as 'a source of continuing disgust and horror'.



Harriet Harman has expressed regret that a civil liberties group she and her husband Jack Dromey MP worked for in the 1970s had links with a pro-paedophile campaigning group

Police are now investigating PIE as part of the Operation Fernbridge child sex inquiry, launched in the wake of the Jimmy Savile scandal.



A senior source said there was evidence PIE members were abusing children ‘on an industrial scale’.

Taking responsibility: Miss Hewitt (in 1975) acknowledged that she should have done more to protect the integrity of the NCCL from the activities of PIE

The Home Office is also looking into shocking claims that the Labour government of the 1970s may have helped finance the paedophile group.

Miss Hewitt 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”.

‘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.’

In particular, she said that PIE leader Tom O’Carroll should never have been allowed to join the NCCL’s gay rights sub-committee.

Miss Hewitt, Miss Harman and her MP husband Jack Dromey all held key roles in the NCCL in the 1970s and 1980s when strong links were forged with PIE.

A Mail investigation discovered that Miss Hewitt described PIE in glowing terms and revealed that the NCCL lobbied parliament for the age of sexual consent to be cut to ten – if the child consented and ‘understood the nature of the act’.

The NCCL also called for incest to be legalised in what one MP dubbed a ‘Lolita’s charter’.

Miss Hewitt – who was at the helm of the NCCL from 1974 to 1983 – said that the proposal by the NCCL to reduce the age of consent had not been hers, although she admitted that it had been the policy of the organisation and the executive committee.

‘I do not support reducing the age of consent or legalising incest,’ she said.

'As the NCCL archives demonstrate, I consistently distinguished between consenting relationships between homosexual men, on the one hand, and the abuse of children on the other.’

Annual report for 1975: Patricia Hewitt published this document in April 1976, which included a 'gay rights' section on page ten defending the Paedophile Information Exchange and its members

Defence: Ms Hewitt had described the Paedophile Action for Liberation group, which changed its name to PIE that year, as 'a campaigning/counselling group for adults sexually attracted to children'

She defended the roles played by Miss Harman and her husband – who is also a Labour frontbencher – when they were prominent figures in the NCCL.

‘When Jack Dromey, as NCCL chairman in 1976, vigorously opposed PIE at the NCCL AGM, he did so with the full support of the executive committee and myself as general secretary,’ she said.

‘Harriet did not join the NCCL staff until 1978. She was one of two legal officers, neither of whom was a member of the executive committee.’

Miss Hewitt said that she was proud of the achievements of the NCCL during her time as general secretary.

‘NCCL in the 1970s played a leading role in anti-discrimination and equality campaigns. We helped to secure the Sex Discrimination Act, anonymity for rape victims and an end to discriminatory immigration rules against British women with a foreign husband. We also built support for equalising the age of consent for homosexual men – a change eventually made in 1998,’ she said.

'As General Secretary then, I take responsibility for the mistakes we made' Patricia Hewitt

‘I am proud of the contribution NCCL made to these and other important reforms during my time as general secretary.’

She added: ‘Although the evil of child sexual abuse is now properly recognised, as a society we still have a long way to go in protecting children, tackling the sexualisation of girls and supporting the survivors of sexual abuse.

‘I hope the lessons that are being learnt from the mistakes of the 1970s will contribute to those goals.’



1978 briefing: The NCCL legal officer Harriet Harman wrote this briefing paper on the Protection of Children Bill, which sought to ban child pornography. She argued that it would lead to an 'increase in censorship'

Argument: The second page contains a paragraph saying that a picture should not be considered indecent if the model was not harmed

Recommendations: Miss Harman's briefing went on that the NCCL would argue that the Bill to protect children should be amended

Signed: The Labour Deputy Leader's name is carried at the bottom of a briefing that argued that a pornographic picture of a naked child should not be considered indecent unless it could be proven that the subject had suffered

Labour leader Ed Miliband publicly defended Miss Harman on Monday.

Caught up in the scandal: Miss Harman and her MP husband Jack Dromey (pictured) said PIE was banished before she became the NCCL's legal officer in 1978

He said: ‘Harriet Harman is somebody of huge decency and integrity. I have known her for 20 years. I do not set any store by these allegations.

‘I know she has a long and proud record of being on the right side of all of these issues.’

The apology by Miss Hewitt, who nowadays has a lucrative seat as a non-executive director on the board of BT, earning £160,000 a year for a part-time job, came as more evidence emerged linking her with PIE.

Archive documents revealed letters she exchanged with its chairman Keith Hose in 1975.

Hose wrote to the NCCL general secretary – on PIE notepaper which features a logo of two young children sitting bare-legged on a rock – asking her to consider PIE’s view in its policy on ages of consent.

Miss Hewitt wrote back to the paedophile group saying: ‘Dear Keith, We have found your evidence... most helpful and I think it has certainly been taken into account by the people preparing our evidence.’

A memo from 1978 also emerged in which she said the NCCL would be prepared to offer legal advice to adults who wanted to have sex with 14-year-olds.