Peter Newell, who shares a name with the illustrator of Alice in Wonderland, is a convicted paedophile. In this article we shall attempt to follow the warren-like network of his connections to the Children's Rights Movement. The results are shocking and, likely, far from complete; for the links are everywhere.
Peter Newell pled guilty on 2 January 2018 to two charges of serious sexual assault between May 1966 and May 1968, and to three charges of indecent assault committed between May 1965 and May 1968. He was jailed for six years and eight months. The case was reported in the mainstream press; well, some of the mainstream press:
- BBC News: Children's rights activist Peter Newell jailed for abuse
- Metro: Man who wanted smacking banned jailed after raping 13-year-old boy
- Daily Mail: Top UNICEF children's rights campaigner—who led UK's anti-smacking campaign—is jailed for rape of boy, 13, in latest charity sex scandal
- Times: Paedophile Peter Newell had key role at child charity
- Telegraph: Children's rights campaigner jailed for abusing a 12-year-old boy
Quite a variety of headlines, although only the Daily Mail headline really gets at the significance of the case. This was not just another in the long and depressing line of paedophiles convicted decades after their offending began. This was a key individual in the Children's Rights Movement, and his work has shaped both the legislation and the culture currently arrayed against the traditional family. Let us look more closely.
As we have to start somewhere, let us start with the organisation Children are Unbeatable. It is:
An alliance of organisations and children seeking legal reform to give children the same protection under the law on assault as adults and promoting positive, non-violent discipline.
It is the UK arm of a wider international movement. The coordinator and only full time member of staff was Peter Newell; he was interviewed in 2004 by Third Sector’s John Plummer:
Smacking children is one of the most emotive subjects, except, it appears, to the man leading the campaign to ban it. "I find the subject deeply boring," confesses Peter Newell, co-ordinator of the Children are Unbeatable! Alliance. "There is no intellectual stimulation in it. But having started the campaign, I can't stop now."
Newell's ennui hasn't prevented him from getting the job done, so much so that he and the alliance's 400 members could soon be free to pursue other avenues. The Children Bill, which is expected to become law by autumn, could remove the 'reasonable chastisement' defence that shields adults who hit children from prosecution. If it does, the alliance will disband.
"It would be very satisfying to take an organisation out of existence because it has achieved its aim," says Newell, 63, who is the organisation's only full-time member of staff. The £80,000 it receives from the NSPCC, Save the Children and Barnardo's pays for him and three part-time employees.
It is, he says, a matter of when, rather than if, smacking is banned.
The ambition to change family law is clear. And how large was the charitable army supporting Newell’s campaign? The Guardian listed them in a January 2000 article. It is a long list, and here I must apologise, as I know of no better way of illustrating the extent of the infiltration by one man (who happened to be a child rapist) into the charitable and government sector in the UK than by reproducing the list in full. Is it possible to imagine any single individual having more influence over policy and practice in the UK concerning children?
- Aberlour Child Care Trust
- Action for Sick Children
- ADHD Family Support Group UK
- Adlerian Society (of the United Kingdom) and the Institute for Individual Psychology
- Adolescent and Children's Trust, The
- Advisory Centre for Education
- African Caribbean Family Mediation Service
- After Adoption
- Alliance of Parents & Schools, The
- Anna Freud Centre, The
- Antidote: Campaign for Emotional Literacy
- Article 12
- Article 31 Action Network
- Association for Family Therapy
- Association of Advisers for Under Eights and their Families (AAUEF)
- Association of Lawyers for Children
- Barnardo's
- BAWSO Women's Aid—Black Association of Women Step Out Ltd.
- Behaviour Management Ltd.
- "Being Yourself"/Parenting Press Ltd.
- Bottesford Youth Town Council
- Boys and Girls Welfare Society
- Bridge Child Care Development Service, The
- Bristol Early Years & Childcare Partnership
- British Agencies for Adoption and Fostering UK (BAAF)
- British Association for Community Child Health (BACCH)
- British Association for Early Childhood Education
- British Association for the Study & Prevention of Child Abuse & Neglect (BASPCAN)
- British Association of Psychotherapists, Child & Adolescent Training Committee
- British Association of Social Workers (BASW)
- British Epilepsy Association
- British Juvenile and Family Courts Society
- Cambridgeshire Probation Service (Family Court Welfare Service)
- Canterbury Children's Centre
- Carers National Association
- Caring for Children
- Catholic Child Welfare Council
- Catholic Children's Society (Arundel & Brighton, Portsmouth and Southwark)
- Catholic Children's Society (Roman Catholic Diocese of Nottingham)
- Catholic Children's Society (Westminster), The
- Community Education Development Centre (CEDC)
- Centre for Fun and Families
- Centre for Personalised Education
- Centre for Studies on Inclusive Education (CSIE)
- Centrepoint
- Child Advocacy International
- Child Base Ltd
- Child Concern
- Child Poverty Action Group
- Child Safe Wales
- Child's Play (International) Ltd. Publishers
- Children 1st: The Royal Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children
- Children in Scotland
- Children in Wales—Plant yng Nghymru
- Children's Law Centre
- Children's Legal Centre
- Children's Play Council
- Children's Rights Office
- Children's Rights Officers and Advocates (CROA)
- Children's Trust, The
- Childwatch
- Chiltern College
- City of York EYCDP
- Community Housing and Therapy
- Community Practitioners' and Health Visitors' Association (CPHVA)
- Contact a Family
- Coram Family (formerly Thomas Coram Foundation for Children)
- Corporal Punishment Survivors
- Council for Disabled Children
- Crime Concern
- Croydon Playcare Company
- Community Service Volunteers (CSV)
- Daycare Trust
- Disabled Children's Foundation
- Durham Initiative Support in the Community (Youth Care Project)
- Early Years & Childcare Partnership Bradford
- Early Years Trainers Anti-Racist Network (EYTARN)
- East Anglia Diocesan Children's Society
- Education Now Ltd.
- End Physical Punishment of Children (EPOCH)
- Enuresis Research and Information Centre
- Fair Play For Children
- Family Care (Scotland)
- Family Caring Trust
- Family First Ltd
- Family Links
- Family Mediation Scotland:- Counselling and Family Mediation—Western Isles
- Family Mediation Borders
- Family Mediation Highland
- Family Mediation Lothian
- Family Mediation Tayside
- Family Mediation West NCH Action for Children
- Dumfries & Galloway Family Mediation Service; NCH Action for Children
- Family Mediation Fife;
- Family Nurturing Network, The
- Family Rights Group
- Family Service Units
- Family Welfare Association
- First Key (NI)
- First Key—The National Leaving Care Advisory Service
- FLAME Network (Family Life and Marriage Education)
- Forum for the Advancement of Educational Therapy and Therapeutic Teaching
- Forum on Children & Violence
- Grandparents Federation
- Greenwich Women's Aid
- GRUMPY—The Greater Manchester Play Resources Unit
- Hackney Parenting Project
- Happy Child Nurseries Ltd
- Hartley Brewer Parenting Projects
- Hartley Wintney Youth Council
- High/Scope Institute
- Highland Pre-school Services
- Howard League for Penal Reform, The
- Hyperactive Children's Support Group
- Institute of Community Studies
- Inter-Action Trust
- International Association for the Child's
- Right to Play (IPA) UK Branch
- International Council for Self Esteem (UK)
- Joint National Committee on Training for Playwork
- KIDS
- Kids Unlimited
- Kids' Clubs Network
- Kidsactive (formerly HAPA)
- Kidscape
- Kinderquest Limited
- Kingston-upon-Hull & East Riding of Yorkshire ACPC
- Kith and Kids
- Language Alive Theatre in Education & Catalyst Theatre in Health Education, Birmingham
- Learning Through Action Trust
- Living Well Ltd
- Local Government Association (Social Affairs and Health Committee)
- London Group of Child Protection Advisers (Community Health)
- London Rape Crisis Centre
- Maternity Alliance
- Mediation UK
- Medical Foundation for the Care of Victims of Torture
- Medical Women's Federation
- Mental Health Foundation, The
- Merseyside Access to Play (MAP)
- Methodist Church, The
- Mind—The Mental Health Charity
- Mind—[London] City and Hackney
- Mudiad Ysgolion Meithrin
- Multiple Births Foundation
- Muscular Dystrophy Group
- National Association for Integrating Early Years Services (NAIEYS), formerly known as NANC
- National Association for Maternal and Child Welfare Family Development Studies
- National Association for Primary Education
- National Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders
- National Association for the Education of Sick Children
- National Association of Guardians ad Litem and Reporting Officers (NAGALRO)
- National Association of Nursery Nurses
- National Association of Social Workers in Education (NASWE)
- National Association of Toy and Leisure Libraries
- National Association of Youth & Community Education Officers
- National Campaign for Nursery Education
- National Childminding Association (including Childminding in Business Ltd)
- National Children's Bureau
- National Children's Centre
- National Council of Women of Great Britain
- National Early Years Network, The
- National Family Mediation
- National Foster Care Association UK
- National Institute for Social Work
- National NEWPIN
- National Playbus Association
- National Portage Association, The
- National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (NSPCC)
- National Standing Committee of Advisers, Inspectors and Consultants: Personal and Social Education
- National Stepfamily Association, The
- National Union of Students United Kingdom (NUS UK)
- National Youth Advocacy Service (formerly The IRCHIN Trust Ltd and incorporating Advice Advocacy and Representation Service for Children (ASC)
- National Youth Agency
- Natural Nurturing Network
- NCH Action for Children (Scotland)
- NIPPA—The Early Years Organisation (NI)
- Norland College, The
- North Lincolnshire Early Years Development and Childcare Partnership
- Northern Ireland Association for the Care and Resettlement of Offenders (NIACRO)
- Northern Ireland Childminding Association
- Northern Ireland Foster Care Association
- Northern Ireland Womens Aid Federation
- Norwood Ravenswood
- One Parent Families Scotland
- Oxfordshire Counselling Service
- Oxfordshire Green Pages
- Parent Network
- Parenting Education and Support Forum
- Parentline
- Parents at Work
- Parents for Children
- Parents for Inclusion
- Parkhill Publishing
- Peace Pledge Union
- Peers Early Education Partnership (PEEP)
- People First
- Parents in Partnership; Parent Infant Network (PIPPIN)
- Play Wales
- Playgroup Network
- Playlink
- Play·Train
- Pop-Up Theatre Ltd
- POPANVA: Promotion of Parenting: A Non-Violent Approach
- Positive Change Associates
- Post Adoption Centre
- Premier Crèche Services Ltd
- Promoting Parenting Skills
- Quarriers
- Relate: Marriage Guidance
- Relate NI, Family Mediation Service
- Relate Teen
- Religious Society of Friends
- Rescue Foundation for the Brain Injured Infant, The
- Richmond Fellowship
- Right From The Start Rights of Women
- RoadPeace
- Royal College of General Practitioners
- Royal College of Midwives
- Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health
- Royal College of Psychiatrists, Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Faculty
- Royal College of Speech and Language Therapists
- Royal Cornwall Hospitals Trust, Child Health Directorate
- Royal Institute of Public Health and Hygiene and Society of Public Health, The
- RPS Rainer—The Royal Philanthropic Society Incorporating The Rainer Foundation
- Runnymede Trust, The
- SACRO, Safeguarding Communities Reducing Offending
- Safeway Stores Plc
- Save the Children Fund
- SCADU—The National Centre for Student Volunteering
- Scope
- Scottish Childminding Association
- Scottish Early Years and Family Network
- Scottish Independent Nurseries Association
- Scottish Out of School Care Network
- Scottish Pre-school Play Association
- Scottish Women's Aid
- Serene incorporating the Cry-sis Helpline
- Social Care Association
- South Tees [Middlesbrough & Redcar & Cleveland] Youth Offender Team
- St. Francis Children's Society
- St. John Ambulance, National Headquarters
- Stepfamily Scotland
- Stepping Stones in Scotland
- Suzy Lamplugh Trust, The
- TACADE
- TACTYC (The Professional Association of Early Childhood Educators)
- The New Learning Centre
- The New School, Butterstone (a special school in Perthshire)
- Thurrock Early Years and Childcare
- Development Partnership
- UK Committee for UNICEF
- UK Public Health Association (formerly Public Health Alliance)
- Ulster Quaker Service Committee
- United Reformed Church
- Victim Support
- Voice for the Child in Care
- Voice of Young People in Care
- Wearside Women in Need
- Welcare Parent and Children Centre
- WelCare Service for Parents and Children
- Welsh Women's Aid:- Aberconwy Women's Aid; Bangor & District Women's Aid; Blaenau Ffestiniog Women's Aid; Cardigan Women's Aid; Rhymney Valley Women's Aid
- West Oxford Centre for Counselling & Psychotherapy
- Who Cares? Scotland
- Who Cares? Trust, The
- Women Together For Peace
- Women's Aid Federation of England
- Woodcraft Folk, The
- Working with Men
- Young Minds
- Young Women's Project
- Youth at Risk
- Youth Clubs UK
- Zero Tolerance Charitable Trust
These are the links from just one position, but Newell had many. He was also coordinator for APPROACH, the Association for the Protection of All Children. This is also a charity (registration no. 328132 in England and Wales) campaigning to end smacking by parents. Its trustees include Dr Anne Crowley of Play Wales. This organisation received hundreds of thousands of pounds from the NSPCC, Barnardo’s, Save the Children and UNICEF, four of the largest children’s organisations, as well as other organisations abroad and a private donor. It operated across the UK Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia.
This brings us to foreign links. Newell was a leading staff member and the prime driving force behind the Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children. Their 2015 report summarises his central position as follows:
The genesis of the GI lay in work done by the two founder members, Peter Newell and Thomas Hammarberg, who both have a long history in defending human rights and in particular the rights of children. From the outset, their influence on the UNCROC was evident, and led them to develop the idea of a Global Initiative. By the time of its launch, the GI had attracted the support of influential human rights defenders such as Mary Robinson (OHCHR) and Carol Bellamy (UNICEF).
EPOCH WORLDWIDE was a network of 79 non-governmental organisations in over 40 countries which shared the aim ending all corporal punishment of children through education and legal reform. Peter Newell was the Coordinator.
In 2006, a new NGO Advisory Council for Follow-up to the UN Study on Violence against Children was formed. It involved nine selected international non-governmental organisations. They are listed below with the names of their representatives:
- CRIN (Veronica Yates)
- Defense for Children International (Virginia Murillo)
- ECPAT (Theo Noten)
- Global Initiative to End All Corporal Punishment of Children (Peter Newell)
- Human Rights Watch (Jo Becker)
- OMCT/World Organization Against Torture (Cecile Trochu Grasso)
- Plan International (Ann-Kristin Vervik)
- Save the Children Alliance (Roberta Cecchetti)
- World Vision (Sara Austin)
Many of these organisations in turn have further links to Peter Newell. For example, CRIN (Child Rights International Network) features meany of Newell’s speeches and articles on their website today; the conviction for child rape not appearing to be a significant source of concern or even embarrassment for them.
While we are on the subject of CRIN, their website's current highlighted articles includes one entitled “Age is arbitrary: setting minimum ages”. This argues that, while the age of criminal responsibility should be raised to 18, both age and capacity should be considered where sexual consent is concerned, or when medical treatment without parental consent is the issue.
And this brings us to the motherlode—the UN Convention of the Rights of the Child. Was Newell involved? But of course. Together with his wife Rachel Hodgkin, Peter Newell authored the three-volume Implementation Handbook for the Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is still proudly promoted by UNICEF and can be downloaded via the following links (vol. 1; vol. 2; vol. 3). This document, and the convention it interprets, is the key driver behind legislation affecting families all across the globe. It was written by a paedophile. It remains current, it remains powerful and it remains in authority over our children.
Picking up the issue of age of consent, this is considered in article 34 in volume three of the handbook (page 523), where we see the following:
Aside from the bar on discrimination in article 2, the Convention is not prescriptive about the age at which the child is to be given the right to consent to sexual activity. Such limits need to be judged against the overall principles of respect for the child’s evolving capacities, and for his or her best interests and health and maximum development. And though the Committee has not recommended a particular age for consent, it has in the case of some States Parties proposed that the age should be raised. Twelve years is considered to be manifestly too low (see, for example, Indonesia CRC/C/15/Add.223, para. 81) and the Committee has also expressed concern about 14 years[.]
The author of this statement, having now been convicted of raping a twelve-year-old boy, is hardly qualified to opine on any matter relating to the care children receive from loving parents and the means by which our societies seek to protect them from predators who would use, scar and destroy the innocent to satisfy their own dark desires.
Thus we see a network extending from the lofty UN building in New York, across the globe and to small community charities in the dales of England, glens of Scotland and valleys of Wales. This network is progressively bringing the state into family life. It does this under the pretense of care, and of protection. But is another agenda at work? How much has been corrupted? Is the family the target; so that more children may be unprotected? And if it is so, just how far has the cancer spread through our charities, government and culture?
Viewing the list of charities that supported Peter Newell's work and the absence of any strong counter-viewpoint, one thing is clear: We are losing the battle of ideas. The paedophiles, acting under cover, have defined, or rather redefined, the nature of childhood and the relationship between parents and children. To remedy this situation we must arm ourselves with knowledge of how, and why, this is done. A place to start is the work of Dr. Judith Reisman, who has written extensively on the influential myths perpetrated by American researcher Alfred Kinsey. Amongst her extensive writing on the subject, one book, "Sexual Sabotage: How One Mad Scientist Unleashed a Plague of Corruption and Contagion on America" is particularly relevant. Assessing her work, Charles E. Rice, Professor at Notre Dame Law School, said:
Dr. Reisman's study supports the conclusion that Alfred Kinsey's research was contrived, ideologically driven and misleading. Any judge, legislator or other public official who gives credence to that research is guilty of malpractice and dereliction of duty.
In resisting this attack on family life, on childhood innocence and on our very humanity, we must understand the ideas and be able to refute them. We must also understand that it is people like Newell and Kinsey who drive these ideas forward. Hiding in plain sight, they corrupt and destroy us. We must find the knowledge and understanding, and above all else, the courage to resist.
