[4] In 1983, Northern & Shell obtained the licence to publish Penthouse in the United Kingdom which led to its development of a portfolio of adult titles,[6] with Asian Babes being among them.

[3] The company was also responsible for the release of Electric Blue softcore pornography videos titled Asian Babes in 1993.

[11] Asian Babes, along with other titles such as Readers' Wives, was part of Desmond's portfolio of soft-porn magazines which was offered for sale in 2001.

Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a columnist for The Independent newspaper in London, England, characterized Desmond as "the seedy porn baron who gives this nation Mega Boobs and Asian Babes and other yuck and muck".

[15] Information about Desmond's ownership of the company that published Asian Babes and other adult magazines was included in a BBC Online 2004 profile[17] which described the controversy surrounding his ownership of a "top-shelf" (pornographic) magazine business[18] at the same time he was attempting to purchase The Daily Telegraph.