Tom O'Carroll

O'Carroll's book Paedophilia: The Radical Case was published in 1980. "I am not interested in why I am a paedophile", he writes "any more than others are interested in why they are 'normal'."[13] He advocates the normalisation of adult-child sexual relationships, and details his own illicit experiences.[13]

O'Carroll asserts his belief that each stage of the sexual relationship between an adult and child can be "negotiated", with "hints and signals, verbal and non-verbal, by which each indicates to the other what is acceptable and what is not... the man might start by saying what pretty knickers the girl was wearing, and he would be far more likely to proceed to the next stage of negotiation if she seemed pleased by the remark".[18] Mary-Kay Wilmers in the London Review of Books wrote: "Since Mr O’Carroll sees nothing wrong with paedophilia, he isn’t interested in our sympathy; and since his opinion of the non-paedophile world is no higher than the opinion the non-paedophile world has of him, he doesn’t waste time trying to be conciliatory".[13]

At the time of its release, the book received mainstream reviews which were either scathingly dismissive,[19][20] like Wilmers,[13] or supportive of the author, if not entirely of the "radical case" he had set out.[21][22] Sociologist Jeffrey Weeks described the book as "the most sustained advocacy" of "intergenerational sex", and stated that there were two powerful arguments against O'Carroll's views about the possibility of children consenting to sex: the feminist argument that "young people, especially young girls, do need protection from adult men in an exploitative and patriarchal society" and the argument that while adults are fully aware of the sexual connotations of their actions, young people are not, and that there is thus "an inherent and inevitable structural imbalance in awareness of the situation."[23] In 2003, The Guardian described it as "a book justifying the behaviour of those who prey on children."[24]

O'Carroll's book on singer Michael Jackson was published in 2010 under the pen name Carl Toms.[25] The book, Michael Jackson's Dangerous Liaisons, concerns the entertainer's alleged intimate relationships with young boys. It was published in the UK by Troubador.[26]

After publication, J. Michael Bailey, professor of psychology at Northwestern University, reviewed the book for the academic journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Describing the author as "an unapologetic paedophile", Bailey observed that the book takes "a pro-pedophilic stance" and argues "persuasively" that Jackson was "almost certainly paedophilic". Bailey wrote, "The idea that paedophilic relationships can be harmless or even beneficial to children is disturbing to many people, including me." But, he continued, "O’Carroll argues against my intuitions and he argues well."[27]

In 2010, O'Carroll's writing was affected following complaints to Amazon.com about a book by another author, Phillip R. Greaves, which encouraged sexual contact between adults and children. After a campaign by outraged Amazon readers, Amazon dropped the book, along with several other books that appeared to promote paedophilia, including O'Carroll's earlier book, Paedophilia: The Radical Case.[28]

In 1981, O'Carroll was convicted for conspiracy to corrupt public morals over the contact ads section of the PIE magazine and was imprisoned for two years.[7]

In August 2002, O'Carroll was convicted at Southwark Crown Court of importing indecent photographs of children from Qatar, which had been found by Customs in October 2001 hidden in his luggage after his arrival at Heathrow Airport. In his packing cases, 94 full-frontal images of naked children aged between 2 and 10 were discovered, apparently taken without their consent or, the judge assumed, without that of their parents. According to O'Carroll, they were equivalent to an art exhibition.[29]

O'Carroll was sentenced to nine-months imprisonment on three counts.[30] The conviction was later overturned in November 2002 by the Court of Appeal which held that the trial judge had been overly influenced by O'Carroll's campaigning. The photos were described in the ruling as having "the quality of indecency in the context in which they were taken, but were of the kind that parents might take of their children entirely innocently". O'Carroll's name was no longer required to be added to the Sex Offenders register.[31]

In 2003, he made an extended appearance on the TV discussion programme After Dark in a BBC revival of the series, featuring, among others, Esther Rantzen and Helena Kennedy.[24]

O'Carroll was convicted in 2006 of conspiring to distribute indecent photographs of children after supplying an undercover Metropolitan Police officer with a cache of indecent images of children obtained from his co-defendant Michael Studdert's secret vault containing 50,000 pornographic images.[32][3][33][34] O'Carroll said the images with which he was connected had been in his possession for a "very long time".[33] A new group O'Carroll was involved in running, International Paedophile Child Emancipation Group, and an offshoot, Gentlemen with an Interesting Name, had been infiltrated by an undercover police officer. According to the police, O'Carroll considered the groups as an attempt at creating an "international secret society" of "academic" child abusers.[3][34]

O'Carroll was arraigned on 1 June 2006 on indecent images of children charges.[35][36] In September 2006, he admitted to two counts of distributing indecent images of children between 1994 and July 2005.[35] On 20 December 2006, he was jailed for 2½ years at Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court.[3][4] O'Carroll was placed on the sex offenders register for ten years and would be prevented from working with children in future.[34]