Peter Wilby, editor and senior newspaper columnist convicted as a pedophile in August, he worked to suppress and undermine investigations into child sexual abuse at the nursing homes, according to an investigative reporter who worked under him.
Wilby, who was allowed to walk from court a free man with a short suspended sentence despite being found guilty of collecting a trove of images of “real children being sexually and cruelly abused,” he wrote numerous columns to the left guardian i new statesman, claiming then that the coverage of pedophiles was sensationalized. Wilby even argued against laws allowing parents to know if pedophiles lived near them.
The 79-year-old UK-based editor also used his editorial roles to try to kill major stories pedophilia as a whole, especially those in care homes in Wales, exposed by investigative reporter Dean Nelson.
Wilby – praised by his left-wing colleagues as an “old-fashioned socialist”: “he used his position as an editor and columnist to create … a ‘hostile environment’ for victims of abuse,” Nelson reported , ironically, in a comment published by the same. guardian newspaper that welcomed and nurtured the pedophile for decades.
During his stay at independentWilby tried to prevent Nelson from reporting abuse at the Ty Mawr and Bryn Estyn children’s homes, in one case forcing the investigator to take the story elsewhere.
Both reports were eventually vindicated, leading to government inquiries, but Wilby still worked to undermine them, publishing articles denigrating the victims as “damaged” and suggesting the whistleblowers might be wrong.
“I hadn’t counted on Wilby’s secret agenda,” Nelson recalled. “More than 30 years after North Wales, Pindown, Leicester and so many other child abuse scandals, the case for listening to children and taking abuse allegations seriously still needs to be made again and again” .
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Peter Wilby, editor and senior newspaper columnist convicted as a pedophile in August, he worked to suppress and undermine investigations into child sexual abuse at the nursing homes, according to an investigative reporter who worked under him.
show more