Thatcher allowed paedophile to keep knighthood: Late former Prime Minister blocked plans to strip Sir Peter Hayman of honour.
May 23, 2015 · By Chris Hastings
Margaret Thatcher blocked plans to strip a paedophile diplomat of his knighthood, according to confidential Government papers published for the first time today.
The then Prime Minister allowed Sir Peter Hayman to keep his knighthood even though she knew he was a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) and had recently been convicted of gross indecency with another man in a public toilet.
Foreign Office files obtained by this newspaper under Freedom of Information laws show that Mrs Thatcher chose to warn Sir Peter – who died in 1992 – about his future conduct rather than strip him of the knighthood.
On July 11, 1984, Sir Robin Butler – her principal private secretary – told the Foreign Office: ‘I am writing to confirm that the Prime Minister agrees that Sir Peter Hayman should be warned that if there were any repetition of the offence for which he has recently been convicted and fined, there should be no alternative but that he should be stripped of his honours, but that no such recommendation should be put forward at the present time.’
Details of Mrs Thatcher’s intervention come just two months after The Mail on Sunday revealed that she approved a knighthood for the late Sir Cyril Smith – even though she knew police had investigated him over allegations of child sex abuse.
At the time of Sir Robin’s letter, Mrs Thatcher would have been aware of both Sir Peter’s recent conviction and his links to PIE.Sir Peter Hayman and Lady Hayman at Uxmore House, their home in Checkendon. They posed for pictures at the front door, but refused to answer questions concerning the child pornography case
In 1981 Tory MP Geoffrey Dickens had used parliamentary privilege to brand the retired diplomat a paedophile in the House of Commons. He was responding to the revelation that in 1978 the then retired Sir Peter, a father of two and former High Commissioner to Canada, had left paedophilia-related material on a bus.
On July 25, 1984, he wrote to a Whitehall official: ‘Let me repeat once again how bitterly ashamed I am for what I have done.’ He added: ‘Rosemary wants me to say how greatly she too appreciated all that you have said and all that you have done.’
Sir Antony last night declined to be drawn further on the correspondence.
