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In Dark Corners

<p>Campaigning journalist, broadcaster and historian Alex Renton shines a light into the dark corners of British society.</p>

BBC Radio 4

Journalist Alex Renton is sent a secret membership list of a pro-paedophile group active in the 1970s and 80s.It’s a lot to take in. Alex is not only a journalist, he’s a survivor of child sexual abuse. The Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) campaigned to 'normalise' sex between children and adults. Their spokesmen claimed that  adult members always sought consent.But from the moment Alex was passed the list he knew that was a lie. He recognised some of those names and he knew they had convictions for child sexual abuse. The List set Alex off on a dizzying journey into the dark history of PIE.  As he uncovered more, he started to wonder: where were all those hundreds of members now? Could children still be at risk? 316 names. Most with UK addresses. All but a handful are men. In this final episode Alex makes contact with some of the former members of PIE; people he believes may still come into contact with children.Archive credits: BBC, Nationwide 1981; BBC, Newsnight 1983; BBC Parliament, 2025.Presenter: Alex Renton
Producer: Caitlin Smith
Executive Producers: Gillian Wheelan and Gail Champion 
Story Consultants: Jack Kibble-White and Kirsty Williams
Sound design: Jon Nicholls
Theme Tune: Jeremy WarmsleyDetails of organisations offering information and support for victims of child sexual abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

5. This Evil Thing

A social care consultant who advises the government on children in care, is raided by police in 1992. A detective finds evidence linking him to the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).A local social worker is called in. He and the detective search through seven boxes of documents, brought from the home of the suspect. They discover that not only was he a member of PIE, but a central figure and high up in establishment circles.Alex Renton sits down with the social worker, and hears about his decades long quest: to expose members of the Paedophile Information Exchange within social care and stop them from harming children.In their public literature, the leaders of PIE members had always claimed their relationships with children were consensual. Alex Renton tracks down one of the boys, now a man in his fifties, who was abused by the childcare expert and his partner.  Archive: Inside Story- The Secret Life of a Paeophile, 1994, BBC. News report on the White Inquiry into Islington Children's Homes child abuse scandal, 1995, BBC;  The Scandal of Crookham Court, That's Life!, 1991, BBC.Presenter: Alex Renton
Producer: Caitlin Smith 
Executive Producers: Gail Champion and Gillian Wheelan
Story Consultants: Jack Kibble-White and Kirsty Williams
Sound design: Jon Nicholls
Theme Tune: Jeremy Warmsley 
Details of organisations offering information and support for victims of child sexual abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

4. Member 51

Alex Renton tries to find out more about the notes scribbled in the margins of the PIE membership list. It looks like they were written by police, who were going door to door visiting the members listed in the document. But this active investigation appears to stop suddenly in 1985. Why? Alex starts piecing together the police investigation into the Paedophile Information Exchange. He discovers the PIE List was seized by the Metropolitan Police in the late seventies and passed to a unit called the Obscene Publications Branch or as it was known internally 'the Dirty Squad'. Presenter: Alex Renton
Producer: Caitlin Smith 
Executive Producers: Gail Champion and Gillian Wheelan
Story Consultants: Jack Kibble-White and Kirsty Williams
Sound design: Jon Nicholls
Theme Tune: Jeremy WarmsleyActor readings: David Hounslow and Samuel James.Archive: Newsnight, 1983 BBC; Mary Whitehouse film archive, Huntly Film Archive 1964; Mastermind 1979 , BBC.Details of organisations offering information and support for victims of child sexual abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline

3. The Dirty Squad

Alex Renton has letters and documentation passed to him by a secret source. He tries to track down a former member of the defunct pro-paedophile group, the Paedophile Information Exchange, or PIE.He delves into the group's origins and discovers that figures within PIE didn’t just groom the people around them, they attempted to groom whole movements.The group formed in 1974; a time when marginalised groups were campaigning for equality and legal change. PIE took heed, that’s what they wanted. So they aligned themselves with minority rights groups. And, these groups, whose ethos was to be open hearted, trusting - bought into it. They were fooled.Alex Renton speaks with men who were part of gay youth groups in the 1970s that were targeted and manipulated by PIE and its members.And he makes a breakthrough with the membership list. Presenter: Alex Renton
Producer: Caitlin Smith 
Executive Producers: Gail Champion and Gillian Wheelan
Story Consultants: Jack Kibble-White and Kirsty Williams
Sound design: Jon Nicholls
Theme Tune: Jeremy WarmsleyDetails of organisations offering information and support for victims of child sexual abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionline.

2. They Groom Everyone

Journalist Alex Renton is shown a secret document, containing the names and addresses of people signed up to a pro-paedophile group called the Paedophile Information Exchange, or PIE, which was active in the 1970s and 80s.That’s not all: weeks after getting the membership list Alex meets a contact who gives him bags full of documents, crammed with reports, contact details, letters. As Alex starts following up on leads; detail of the criminal activities committed by some of PIE’s members, and those connected with them, begins to emerge.It’s a lot to take in. Alex is not only a journalist, he’s a survivor of child sexual abuse. All of this information about PIE; it feels like a heavy weight to carry. Are children still at risk? Alex sets off on a dizzying journey into the dark history of the Paedophile Information Exchange and uncovers abuses committed by PIE's members: teachers, clergy, social workers, government advisors.As Alex finds out more, he starts to wonder: where are all those hundreds of members now? He meets the former deputy editor of Private Eye, journalist Francis Wheen: he has a long memory for news and a nose for stories that people in power want to keep secret.  What does he know about PIE?Archive credits: Newsnight, BBC, August 1983Details of organisations offering information and support for victims of child sexual abuse are available at bbc.co.uk/actionlinePresenter: Alex Renton
Producer: Caitlin Smith
Researchers: Claire Harris and Marisha Currie
Executive producers: Gail Champion and Gillian Wheelan
Written by Alex Renton, Caitlin Smith, Jack Kibble White and Kirsty Williams
Sound designer: Jon Nicholls
Theme tune composed by Jeremy Warmsley

1. The List

Journalist Alex Renton attended three traditional private schools. When he was eight he left home and boarded at Ashdown House, where he was sexually abused by a teacher. It wasn't until 2014 that Alex felt able to face his demons. He began writing about his experiences and that's when emails and letters started pouring in from other boarding school survivors, from around the country. The scale was breathtaking.In summer 2022 Alex presented the series 'In Dark Corners', in which he followed the path of predatory teachers as they made their way through Britain's most elite schools, where the abuse was either ignored or enabled. Few were charged. Many fled the country. In this fourth episode Alex picks up the stories of two teachers covered earlier in the series. 'Hubert' from episode 1 was a teacher at Ashdown House; an exclusive all boys school in Sussex, which includes Boris Johnson amongst its alumni.  'Edgar' from episode 2 taught broadcaster Nicky Campbell, amongst many others, at Edinburgh Academy and Fettes College in Edinburgh. Both teachers have numerous allegations of sexual abuse against them spanning decades and continents. Both are now in South Africa. Will they ever be brought back to Britain to be tried in court?BBC Action Line support: Child sexual abuse:
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/22VVM5LPrf3pjYdKqctmMXn/information-and-support-sexual-abuse-and-violenceProducer: Caitlin Smith
Presenter: Alex Renton
Editors: Gail Champion and Heather Kane-Darling
Research in South Africa: Carol Albertyn Christie
Sound design: Jon Nicholls

4. South Africa

Alex Renton attended three traditional private schools. When he was eight he left home and boarded at Ashdown House, a prep school in East Sussex; a feeder school to Eton College.Within weeks of his arrival he was sexually abused by a teacher. The teacher was never charged or even sacked. He died in 2011, a free man. The assault, compounded by the physical and emotional abuse so often a feature of boarding school life, has stayed with Alex. And like a great number of the million Britons alive today who attended these institutions, he spent the subsequent years trying to forget what had happened to him there. Then, in 2014, Alex finally decided he had to face his demons. He wrote a book, Stiff Upper Lip, about public schools and about the experiences he and others had within them. That’s when the emails and letters started pouring in. Former pupils, men and women, from all around the country, shared with him their stories of sexual and physical abuse. The scale was breathtaking. Now, years later, Alex Renton has unfinished business with Britain’s elite schooling system.In the last episode of this three series Alex heads north to Aberlour and Gordonstoun. Aberlour is a feeder school for Gordonstoun, where many of the Royal family were educated. The novelist William Boyd, a contemporary of Prince Charles called it 'a type of penal servitude'.Alex tells the story of two former pupils; both sexually assaulted by different teachers in the early nineties, and follows their struggle for peace and recompense. Producer: Caitlin Smith
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls 
Editors: Gail Champion and Heather Kane-DarlingPhoto: Alex at eight

3. Aberlour & Gordonstoun

Alex Renton attended three traditional private schools. When he was eight he left home and boarded at Ashdown House, a prep school in East Sussex; a feeder school to Eton College.Within weeks of his arrival he was sexually abused by a teacher. The teacher was never charged or even sacked. He died in 2011, a free man. The assault, compounded by the physical and emotional abuse so often a feature of boarding school life, has stayed with Alex. And like a great number of the million Britons alive today who attended these institutions, he spent the subsequent years trying to forget what had happened to him there. Then, in 2014, Alex finally decided he had to face his demons. He wrote a book, Stiff Upper Lip, about public schools and about the experiences he and others had within them. That’s when the emails and letters started pouring in. Former pupils, men and women, from all around the country, shared with him their stories of sexual and physical abuse. The scale was breathtaking. Now, years later, Alex Renton has unfinished business with Britain’s elite schooling system.In the second of a three part series, Alex tracks how a prolific abuser was able to make his way through some of the UK's most elite schools - from Shrewsbury, to Bradfield and from Eton College to Fettes College in Edinburgh. Alex discovers that in the 1970s a number of paedophiles were operating at the same time in Fettes. One is still alive today.Producer: Caitlin Smith
Researcher: Claire Harris
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Editors: Gail Champion and Heather Kane-DarlingPhoto: Alex at eight years old

2. Eton to Fettes

Alex Renton attended three traditional private schools. When he was eight he left home and boarded at Ashdown House, a prep school in East Sussex; a feeder school to Eton College.Within weeks of his arrival he was sexually abused by a teacher. The teacher was never charged or even sacked. He died in 2011, a free man. The assault, compounded by the physical and emotional abuse so often a feature of boarding school life, has stayed with Alex. And like a great number of the million Britons alive today who attended these institutions, he spent the subsequent years trying to forget what had happened to him there. Then, in 2014, Alex finally decided he had to face his demons. He wrote a book, Stiff Upper Lip, about public schools and about the experiences he and others had within them. That’s when the emails and letters started pouring in. Former pupils, men and women, from all around the country, shared with him their stories of sexual and physical abuse. The scale was breathtaking. Now, years later, Alex Renton has unfinished business with Britain’s elite schooling system.In the first episode of a three part series, Alex returns to Ashdown House, where some of Britain's most powerful figures, including Boris Johnson and the Queen's nephew David Linley, were educated. From Sussex to South Africa, Alex tells the story of how a group of men, all subjected to horrendous sexual abuse, are still fighting to bring their abusers to justice. Producer: Caitlin Smith
Additional Research: Claire Harris 
Reporting in South Africa: Nceba Ezra Singapi 
Sound Design: Jon Nicholls
Editors: Gail Champion and Heather Kane-DarlingPhoto: Alex at eight years old

1. Ashdown House

In 2022, journalist Alex Renton told the story of sexual abuse and cover up in Britain’s elite schools, including his own. After the Radio 4 series aired, his inbox exploded; with people sharing their personal accounts of abuse.Last spring, and anothr email. This one came with an attachment: a scanned copy of a membership list for a pro-paedophile campaign group active in the 1970s and 80s. The group's name was the Paedophile Information Exchange, or PIE for short. The PIE List sets Alex - himself a survivor of child sexual abuse - on a dizzying journey into the group’s dark history. As he digs further, a source gets in touch; could Alex travel to meet him? During that meeting he hands him other secret documents, which build a picture of the criminal activities of some of PIE’s members: teachers, clergymen, social workers, government advisors.Alex begins to wonder: where are all those hundreds of PIE members now? Are children still at risk?Presenter: Alex Renton
Producer: Caitlin Smith
Researchers: Claire Harris and Marisha Currie
Executive producers: Gail Champion and Gillian Wheelan
Story Consultants: Jack Kibble White and Kirsty Williams
Written by Alex Renton, Caitlin Smith, Jack Kibble White and Kirsty Williams
Sound designer: Jon Nicholls
Theme tune composed by Jeremy Warmsley
Commissioning executive: Tracy Williams
Commissioner: Dan Clarke