"[13] However, PAL was later the subject of an article in the Sunday People, which dedicated its front page and centre-spread to the story, headlined "The vilest men in Britain".

[16] Peter Hain, then Honorary Vice-President of CHE, condemned PIE: "Some plain speaking is called for: paedophilia is not a condition to be given a nod and a wink as a healthy fringe activity in society – it is a wholly undesirable abnormality requiring sensitive treatment.

[11] To this end, it held regular meetings in London; however, it also had a "Contact Page" in Magpie, which was a bulletin in which members placed advertisements, giving their membership number, general location, and brief details of their sexual and other interests.

[11] In the absence of any proof of child sexual abuse, these contact advertisements in Magpie were considered part of a "conspiracy to corrupt public morals".

[19] While saying he has "no memory" of ever being a part of the organisation, Fulford said that he "attended a few meetings of the NCCL's gay rights committee ... [where] I provided some legal advice in the context of general civil liberties objections to the wide-ranging charge of conspiracy to corrupt public morals", adding that he has "always been deeply opposed to paedophilia" and pro-paedophile activists who wished to lower the age of consent below 16.

The original Newsletter was superseded in 1976 by Understanding Paedophilia, which was intended to be sold in radical bookshops and be distributed free to PIE members.

It was mainly the concern of Warren Middleton, who attempted to make the magazine a serious journal that included extracts from sensitive paedophilic literature and articles from psychologists, with the aim of establishing respectability for paedophilia.

[22][24] A year later, a question relating to the incident was asked in the House of Commons by Sir Bernard Braine but, despite a statement by Home Office Minister Brynmor John that there was no evidence of public money going to PIE, the issue was drawn out into 1978 in the letters pages of The Guardian and The Times.

When Middleton ceased active work with PIE, Understanding Paedophilia was replaced by the magazine Magpie, which was more of a compromise between the proselytising of the earlier publication and a forum for members.

It contained news, book and film reviews, articles, non-nude photographs of children, humour about paedophilia, letters and other contributions by members.

[32] A review conducted later that year found no evidence that the group had received funding from the Home Office, even if they had given cash to organisations with connections to PIE.

[33] In a 2020 interview with the Irish Gript Media news network, British LGBT+ rights activist Peter Tatchell denounced PIE as "disgusting.

He also asked the Leader of the House of Commons to "investigate the security implications of diaries found in the diplomat's London flat which contained accounts of sexual exploits".

[43] Napier was accused in 2005 by journalist Francis Wheen of having sexually assaulted boys while a gym master at Copthorne Preparatory School in West Sussex.

[45] In January 2006, the Metropolitan Police Service Paedophile Unit arrested the remaining PIE members on child pornography charges.

[46] Douglas Slade, who was involved in both the Paedophile Action for Liberation and PIE, was convicted at Bristol Crown Court in June 2016, and sentenced to 24 years' imprisonment.

[47] It was said during his trial that Slade had run what was effectively a helpline to aid the practices of child sex abusers from his parents' Bristol home in the 1960s and 1970s.

A document penned on the organisation's behalf by Harriet Harman (later deputy leader of the Labour Party), working as a legal officer at the time, placed the onus of proving harm on prosecutors and warned of the dangers of increasing censorship, although it did also argue that "it is none-the-less justifiable to restrain activities by photographer[s] which involve placing children under the age of 14 (or, arguably, 16) in sexual situations".

[59] In June 2015, documents emerged as a result of a BBC freedom of information request that revealed the then Conservative Home Secretary, Leon Brittan, refused to support a bill designed to outlaw PIE because he considered the law on incitement of sexual activities with children to be "not so clear".

[60][61] On 19 July 2015, Australia's 60 Minutes broadcast an investigation of an alleged paedophile ring, into which abused children were supplied by one of PIE's founders, Peter Righton, who was also a former director of education in the National Institute for Social Work.

The alleged network was said to include senior public figures such as Greville Janner and Cyril Smith, alongside a former head of MI6, Peter Hayman.

[77] The BBC found further information about 45% of the people on the list: half had later been convicted, cautioned, or charged but died before trial for sexual offences against children included distributing abuse images, kidnap and rape.

A small number of men on the list were found to possibly still be in contact with children professionally in 2024, with no criminal convictions the BBC could find.