Magistrates at Evesham, Worcestershire, heard that the material included copies of a recognised paedophile magazine and photographs of young boys under the age of 16 posing partly dressed or naked. Peter Righton, 66, of Badsey Road, Evesham, admitted two illegal importation charges and one charge of possessing obscene material. He was ordered to pay pounds 75 costs and the magistrates ordered that the magazines should be destroyed.

The chairman of the bench, Robert Rowland, told him: ‘We are aware that you are of previous good character, but we think these are serious matters and the penalty we impose must reflect that.’

Righton, a former consultant to the National Children’s Bureau whose patrons include the Secretary of State for Health, Virginia Bottomley, is known as Peter but appeared in court under his real forenames, Paul Pelham.

He has been a lecturer at the National Institute for Social Work in London, and has worked with the Open University advising social-work managers on the rights of children in care. Gordon Smith, for the prosecution, said that a book and a magazine containing pictures of young men were intercepted by Customs officers at the Dover postal depot in April. The packages were addressed to Righton.

The following month, the police raided his home and found one copy of a magazine called The Stud Boys and three copies of a paedophile magazine, Ben.

Righton was the former director of education at the National Institute for Social Work, and a consultant for the National Children’s Bureau. Yet he was also a founding member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), which wanted the age of consent reduced to four. Righton published essays justifying paedophilia, which he called no more mysterious than “a penchant for redheads”.

PIE did not present themselves as child abusers but “child lovers”, keen to “liberate” children from sexual “repression”. Their literature hijacked the language of liberation to persuade gay men and women, feminists and radicals that they had common interests in challenging “the patriarchy”. Their propaganda was skilful and it still reverberates. Some of Righton’s colleagues fell for this and later admitted that they were scared to challenge his enthusiasm for sex with children lest they seem “anti gay”. Many youngsters made serious allegations against Righton.

It wasn’t until Customs and Excise intercepted child pornography posted to him from Holland, in 1992, that police raided his home and found hundreds of letters between him and other paedophiles, revealing he had abused, prostituted and shared numerous boys.

Righton’s correspondents included an assistant bishop, artists, aristocrats and public school teachers. It then emerged that Righton’s lover ran a school for emotionally disturbed children, and Righton was vice-chairman of governors. New Barns School in Gloucestershire, which was attended by many children from London care homes, was investigated and closed down on child welfare grounds.

A criminal trial followed and all eight staff including Righton’s lover were cleared of charges of conspiring to falsely imprison. Another teacher was jailed for the sexual abuse of girls. But concerns could have been raised years before, if only a far-Left council in London had acted as it should have.