Paedophile Information Exchange supporter jailed for abuse Published duration 25 July 2016

image copyright PA image caption Christopher Skeaping (right) stood trial at Bristol Crown Court with Douglas Slade (left), 75,

A man with links to a group which campaigned for sex with children to be decriminalised has been jailed for assaulting a teenager.

Christopher Skeaping, 72, was convicted of one count of indecently assaulting a 15-year-old boy in the 1980s.

Bristol Crown Court heard the former racing driver was involved with Paedophile Action for Liberation (PAL), which later became the Paedophile Information Exchange.

He was jailed for five years.

A sexual harm prevention order was also imposed on Skeaping, formerly of Hounslow in London, who has previously been imprisoned for abusing teenage boys.

'Very crude manner'

Bristol Crown Court heard PAL and PIE operated in the 1970s and 1980s and called for the age of consent to be lowered to allow sex with children to be legalised.

"[The victim] said it was common knowledge that you were interested in boys sexually," Judge Euan Ambrose told Skeaping.

"He said you spoke quite openly about being into sex with boys, you couldn't understand how it was considered a problem that older men would want to have sexual relationships with children.

"You used to express your views on this in a very crude manner."

image copyright PA image caption The court was told Christopher Skeaping introduced his victim to Douglas Slade (pictured)

Skeaping stood trial alongside Douglas Slade, 75, who was jailed for 24 years for 13 child sex offences.

The court was told Skeaping introduced his victim to Slade, also a member of PAL and PIE, who went on to abuse him.

In 2010, Skeaping was jailed for five years for three offences he committed against one boy aged under 16 in the 1980s and 1990s.

More victims

He was jailed for seven years and six months in 2012, having been convicted of two offences against a boy aged under 16 in the 1970s.

He had just been released from prison when he was charged and brought to trial for this latest offence.

Det Sgt Paul Melton, of Avon and Somerset Police, said there was evidence Skeaping and Slade were part of a wider network of men interested in sexually abusing children.

"We believe there will be more victims who haven't yet come forward," he said.

"I'd like to send them a message - we are here to listen and support you."

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