The former chairman of a group that called for paedophilia to be legalised has joined the Labour party, according to reports.
The Times has reported that Tom O'Carroll joined the party in September.
Mr O'Carroll, a former chairman of the Paedophile Information Exchange (Pie), was convicted in 1981 of 'conspiracy to corrupt public morals' and in 2006 for 'conspiring to distribute indecent images of children'.
He told The Times that he did not have 'any comment' on his relationship with Labour.
Labour's general secretary Iain McNicol has now been urged to suspend or remove Mr O'Carroll from the party.
John Mann MP told The Times: "He is totally unfit to be a Labour party member. He should be immediately thrown out. We don't want him or anyone like him anywhere near the Labour party."
The party received an influx of new members last year ahead of the election of its new leader, Jeremy Corbyn. It costs £3 to join the party, following the introduction of a scheme by Ed Miliband.
A spokesperson for the Labour Party said: "We do not comment on individual membership of the Labour Party."
Pie was set up in 1974 to campaign for the law to be changed to legalise sex with children.
Mr O'Carroll has not backed down from his views.
On his website he said: "I have been at odds with 'the dominant narrative' of sexual morality over the last several decades, especially as regards children's sexual self-determination and paedophilia.
"My aim here is to present a discourse of resistance. That probably sounds grim, but humour and cheerfulness are my weapons of choice, along with reason and research."
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel