Peter Bremner
Dr. Peter Bremner (pseudonym for Roger Nash), was a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE's) Executive Committee, which he had joined in 1977. British newspaper the Daily Express (1984) described Bremner as a "doctor of philosophy."[1] In 1984, at 45-years-old, he was convicted and sent to prison for 6 month on one count of sending an "indecent article" (i.e. piece of writing) by post. At the time, he had one previous court appearance - in 1978 - for three charges of indecent assault on three separate boys, for which he was given suspended sentences.
Bremner assisted in PIE's prisoner support scheme, which found correspondents for inmates who were PIE members, sought sponsors to cover the expenses of their membership, and mailed them recommended books and items from the press service.[2] PIE Chairman Steve Smith (later Steve Freeman), wrote in 1984:
- There had been several major stories on PIE since Tom O'Carroll was convicted, each of which had repercussions far beyond the immediate distress inflicted on the committee members named, and illustrate well the harm which the gutter press can cause.
- The first of these stories (NOTW, March 22nd., 1981) was occasioned by PIE having to open a new post Office box, the sponsor of our previous box, David Grove, having died. The Post Office leaked the home address of our new sponsor, Peter Bremner, to the NOTW so fast that the reporters were at his door before the box had even been used, and before the Executive Committee itself, let alone our members, knew where the P.O. Box was located.Cite error: Closing
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- The first of these stories (NOTW, March 22nd., 1981) was occasioned by PIE having to open a new post Office box, the sponsor of our previous box, David Grove, having died. The Post Office leaked the home address of our new sponsor, Peter Bremner, to the NOTW so fast that the reporters were at his door before the box had even been used, and before the Executive Committee itself, let alone our members, knew where the P.O. Box was located.Cite error: Closing
On 17th May 1983, police officers interviewed Bremner. In a subsequent trial lasting 6 days, the unnamed article at issue is described as a piece that had been translated by Joy, and judged as having a "tendency [...] to corrupt" in court. It was accepted in court that "he [Bremner] did not know that obscenity would be contained in it."Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag Other than his attendance at Ipce meetings, little is known about Bremner's life after PIE disbanded and after he was released from prison.
References
- ↑ Tony Dawe, Child-sex men fear jail revenge (Daily Express, 15th November 1984).
- ↑ Steven Adrian Smith, "PIE, from 1980 Until its Demise in 1985," in The Betrayal of Youth: Radical Perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergeneratioal Sex, and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People, ed. by Warren Middleton (CL Publications: London, 1986). [IPCE Link - External link].