Thatcher allowed paedophile to keep knighthood

Former High Commissioner to Canada
Sir Peter Hayman

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.

And in 2013 it emerged that she had tried to secure a knighthood for the disgraced DJ Jimmy Savile, even though civil servants regarded him as a ‘strange personality’.

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.  (more...)

Thatcher allowed paedophile to keep knighthood