Danish Pedophile Association

The Pedophile Group, Pedophile Group Association or Danish Pedophile Association (f. 1985) was a Danish organisation which was disbanded on 21 March 2004. A website was retained for some time, operated by a group of former members.

On 23 July 1996, the group had eighty registered members and participated in an International Congress in Denmark. It was also connected with Ipce. A 2004 newspaper article identified Dan Markussen as the organization's spokesman.

In 2000, a Danish TV documentary team went undercover to investigate the group. Members were shown exchanging child pornography and giving advice on how to contact youths in internet chatrooms. A man was arrested by police in connection with the investigation.

In 2004, the Danish newspaper Dagbladet Information ran a front-page article by the journalist Kristian Ditlev Jensen calling for the organisation's home page to be taken down. Similar criticism of the groups came from papers such as Berlingske, Jyllands-Posten and Politiken.

In 2004, the Danish Parliament voted against the dissolution of the association.

The Demise of DPA

(18th of April 2004):

As most people will know, a press release was issued on the 21st of March 2004, stating that the members of the Danish Pedophile Association had decided to close the association. The shutdown of the association and its website followed several weeks of intense debate among the active members of the association on whether this drastic step would be the best solution considering the massive, incorrect and unjustified attacks against the DPA lately. A group of active members of the former association disagree on political grounds and for principal reasons with the decision to close the DPA. And that is why we have decided to open this new website.

Politically we consider the shutting down of the website to have been a mistake while the public prosecutor is conducting an investigation of the association. This could be, and already has been seen as, an attempt to hide the truth about the contents of the website. However, as we have nothing to hide we have decided, so far temporarily, to open this website with the contents from the DPA's website the way it was at the time of its closing. Only contents regarding the organizational affairs of the now abolished association have been removed. We confidently anticipate the results of the public prosecutor's investigation.

For principal reasons we object to the closing of the website, because we refuse to be subdued by unjust pressure from anti-democratic journalists, politicians and not least rabid groups in Denmark and abroad, who (contrary to us) have threatened to use illegal means or have already done so (the website of the DPA has been subject to attacks from hackers several times, and the association Stop Pædofili Nu ("Stop pedophilia Now") has threatened to steal and publish the DPA's membership list).

There are competent professionals in society who share our opinion that there is a need for a more varied debate as regards pedophilia. We want to be able to use the same constitutional freedom of expression and democratic rights that befalls all citizens in this country to work politically for this purpose. The demise of the association and website is tantamount to giving into terrorism: If only the (unjust) pressure is strong enough, if only the (unfounded) accusations and lies are many enough, if only the threats are serious enough, then we will all abandon our civil liberties, close down our legal association and cease our non-violent political struggle for what we think is right. This, in our opinion, is unacceptable, (self-)discriminatory and an expression of disrespect of democracy!

We would have liked to have had sufficient resources to re-establish a counselling for pedophiles, but realizing the state of things, we find this impossible for the time being. For this reason the purpose so far is solely the continuation of a website in order to give the public access to more varied views in the debate on pedophilia. No meetings, no members, no statutes, only this informative website on the Internet as a unique source of scientific information regarding pedophilia and related topics. Any remaining references to the DPA on this website are to be considered "historical material" regarding the now abolished association. What will happen later has not been decided yet. The former association's P.O. Box has been closed. The group behind this new website calls itself the "DPA Group 04" (after the year 2004) and can be contacted on this address:

DPA - Gruppe 04

P.O.Box 51 - DK-6000 Kolding (Denmark)

Or by e-mail: danpedo|sexualpolitik|se

External Links

• Danish Pedophile Association - The Archived Website
• Ipce Report