Tom O'Carroll

Thomas Victor O'Carroll (born August 8, 1945) is a dual nationality Irish/British writer, activist for pedophilia and pedosexual advocacy. O'Carroll is a former chairperson of the now disbanded Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE) and was at one time a prominent member of Ipce, formerly known as International Paedophile and Child Emancipation.

O'Carroll has been imprisoned three times by the British government on extremely dubious charges. The final case as described on the website of historian William A. Percy was the result of a “sting operation” in which an undercover officer befriended Mr. O'Carroll and systematically pressured him to provide him with child pornography over a three year period.

Paedophilia:The Radical Case

(See: External links for free download of this book in pdf format)

In 1980 O'Carroll's book Paedophilia:The Radical Case was published and in the preface he states,” I am a paedophile, and in the chapters that follow it will become apparent why I have felt it necessary to crash through the barriers of societal disapproval by speaking out. The fact that I have been able to do so owes much to the work, described in Part Three, of the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE), a group with which I have been closely connected, which has been campaigning since its inception in 1974 for the open discussion of paedophilia, and for abolition of the laws against consensual sexual acts between children and adults.”

"Described as "a well researched and articulate book" by Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger , this first major work by O'Carroll divided reviewers sharply. In the academic world it has stood the test of time with over 90 Google Scholar citations by 2012. For many years it was a recommended text for postgraduates at Cambridge University's Institute of Criminology. A major discussion of the book is to be found in Li, West & Woodhouse, Children's Sexual Encounters With Adults, where Li contrasted O’Carroll’s position with that of David Finkelhor, who has been described as “probably the most prominent sociologist” at work in the field of child sexual abuse. Li examined and criticised both positions, finally proposing a five-point compromise . In 2005, the ethical underpinning of O’Carroll’s writing received critical attention in Sex from Plato to Paglia: A Philosophical Encyclopedia. In the encyclopaedia’s entry on “Pedophilia”, Igor Primoratz, Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at the Hebrew University, Jerusalem, describes and discusses the challenges O’Carroll makes to the concept of childhood sexual “innocence”, the view that early sexual experience harms children’s development, and the claim that “informed consent”, as opposed to simple willingness, is an ethical necessity for engagement in sexual acts with others. Primoratz concludes that, “If sexual activity cannot be shown to be different to other activities in which adults become involved with children, then the moral and legal standing of pedophilia depends solely on whether it is harmful to the children.” The hard cover copy published by Peter Owen Ltd, London is now considered a rare book and book collectors are paying from 100 to 200 dollars per copy.

A review from Amazon.com:

Honest and human, this reveals the "truth" for a change

Review by a customer on December 17, 1998

O'Carroll hasn't merely presented an honest personal viewpoint (and done that with some style too!) but has managed a compelling objective-subjective balance in his writing which is both engaging of the heart and thought-provoking, challenging. The fact that this book wasn't a best-seller is, I think, testimony to the intensity of negative hype that the subject receives and the abdication of all Reason it invokes in most otherwise reasonable people. With apt historicity and telling psychological data, O'Carroll has provided a cultural lifeline of sorts for paedophiles lost at sea with their feel TRUNCATED - MUST FIX

Contents

• Preface
• New Preface (was omitted from HTML files, and is unavailable)
• Chapter 1: The Seeds of Rebellion
• Chapter 2: Children's Sexuality: What Do We Mean?
• Chapter 3: The 'Molester' and His 'Victim'
• Chapter 4: Paedophilia in Action
• Chapter 5: Do Children NEED Sex?
• Chapter 6: Towards More Sensible Laws
• Chapter 7: The Philosophy of Children's Rights
• Chapter 8: 'Consent' and 'Willingness'
• Chapter 9: Power and Equality
• Chapter 10: Children in Erotica and Pornography
• Chapter 11: The Beginnings of Radical Paedophilia in Britain
• Chapter 12: The Big Bang
• Chapter 13: A Wider Perspective
• Bibliography

In 1981 O'Carroll was convicted for "conspiracy to corrupt public morals" over the contact ads section of the PIE magazine and was imprisoned. While the charges do not appear on the surface to be related to the publication of the book "Paedophilia: The Radical Case", the fact that he had written it may have influenced the judge in determining the length of his sentence.

Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Liaisons

O’Carroll’s book on singer Michael Jackson was published in 2010 under the pen name “Carl Toms”. Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Liaisons, a 624-page work, essayed a comprehensive review of the late entertainer’s controversially intimate relationships with preadolescent and adolescent boys. Published in the UK by Troubador Publishing Ltd. "At seventeen years in the making and a hefty 624 pages, this has been O'Carroll's most ambition work, in which, under the pen name Carl Toms, he essays a comprehensive review of the late entertainer’s controversially intimate relationships with young boys. Described by historian William A. Percy as "a work of genius", Michael Jackson's Dangerous Liaisons received enthusiastic pre-publication endorsements from five eminent professors, including Percy. After publication another renowned scholar, J. Michael Bailey, professor of psychology at Northwestern University, also gave high praise in a four-page review for the academic journal Archives of Sexual Behavior. Bailey, a family man, wrote, “The idea that pedophilic relationships can be harmless or even beneficial to children is disturbing to many people, including me.” But, he continued, “The lack of scientific evidence supporting my largely visceral reactions against pedophilic relationships has been one of the most surprising discoveries of my hopefully ongoing scientific education...O’Carroll argues against my intuitions and he argues well.”

Just before it scheduled release date in 2010, "disaster struck the launch of Michael Jackson's Dangerous Liaisons. Jackson fans, outraged over O'Carroll's revival of "child molesting" allegations against their idol, exposed pseudonymous author "Carl Toms" online as none other than "convicted paedophile" Tom O'Carroll, as a result of which the publisher panicked and withdrew from the book's marketing operation. Once he had recovered from the shock, O'Carroll launched Dangerous Books Ltd, with himself as sole director, in order to promote and distribute the title. Book saboteurs attempted to sink the re-launch as well, by libelling O'Carroll's academic supporters as paedophiles."

Publications

1978: Paedophilia: Some Questions and Answers. Authored jointly with Keith Hose, former PIE Chair, and "John", a nominee of the partly government-funded Albany Trust, which commissioned the work but withdrew from publishing it after coming under attack from socially conservative campaigner Mary Whitehouse. This booklet was distributed by PIE to every Member of Parliament.

1978: Chemical castration, Gay Left 7, Winter 1978-9, pp. 37-8. See Activism, above, for more on the theme of this article.

1979: Is PIE sexist? Magpie 12, January 1979, pp.7-9

1979: Paedophilia: A Response, Gay Left 8, Summer 1979, pp.13-17

1980: Paedophilia: The Radical Case. Peter Owen Ltd, London, 1980 (hardback); Alyson Publications, Boston, Mass., 1982 (paperback). ISBN 0-7206-0546-6

1983: The Age Taboo, by Dan Tsang: a review. This review has a colourful history: there were questions about it in Parliament. O'Carroll wrote the review while in Wandsworth Prison for conspiracy to corrupt public morals...The review was written on prison stationery, complete with his prisoner number, L20711, and sent as a letter to PIE member Charles Oxley, who later turned out to be the founding headmaster of a private school based on "old-fashioned moral values", and also an amateur spy. Oxley's efforts resulted in Eldon Griffiths MP raising the matter at Question Time in Parliament. On 11 November, Griffiths, Conservative Party spokesman for the Police Federation, asked Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew whether paedophile literature was permitted in Her Majesty's prisons; and why a prisoner at Wandsworth was allowed to receive and review for publication..."a book on the subject of sexual intercourse with children". The question prompted an equivocal reply, and an apology on behalf of the prison governor. (Minor Problems 1, 15 April 1983, pp.10-11)

1993 A Jackson jury on the streets, NAMBLA Bulletin, 14(8):14-16,November 1993. This article was based on O'Carroll's own informal public opinion survey in relation to Michael Jackson's alleged sexual abuse of young boys, a story that broke in August 1993 and was still dominating the tabloids months later. Already O'Carroll was researching the book on Jackson that would eventually be published in 2010.

2000 Sexual Privacy for Paedophiles and Children, Symposium on Sexual Privacy at the annual meeting of the International Academy of Sex Research, Paris. O'Carroll was a speaker at the invitation of Richard Green, founder president of the IASR, and president for a second term in 2000.

2001 Is paedophilia violent? World Congress of Sexology, Paris. O'Carroll's proposed paper was given sustained encouragement over nearly a year by Dr Marc Ganem, President of the WCS. However, the paper was eventually rejected without explanation by the organisation's Scientific Committee. After repeated demands for an explanation went unanswered, O'Carroll was finally able to talk to Ganem. In a phone conversation Ganem indicated that the President of the Scientific Committee, Dr Willy Pasini, appeared to be concerned not about the scientific quality of the paper but by the controversy to which it might give rise. It seems the committee did not want to upset the major pharmaceutical companies sponsoring the congress, nor the politically sensitive World Health Organization with which it was associated. In order to combat this censorship, O'Carroll's supporters attended the congress, where they distributed his paper on a CD, along with a flyer titled Censored: The Speech They Didn't Want You To Hear.

2001 A gay view of 'child abuse': Review of The Abomination by Paul Golding.

2002 Sentencing in child pornography cases: A Response to the Sentencing Advisory Panel's Consultation Paper. This was a 55-page, detailed, extensively researched submission made in response to a call for submissions from the public. When the press got wind of it, though, a rather different impression was given. The Sunday Express headline (15 September 2002) was "Scandal of pervert on top legal panel". O'Carroll had never been a member of the panel. Reporter Luisa Metcalfe wrote: "The panel was set up by former Home Secretary Jack Straw in 1999 to encourage consistency in sentencing. Its softer sentencing advice to the Court of Appeal caused controversy last month." The implication is that O'Carroll's paper had influenced the judges, which had of course been his intention. In reality, though, the "softer" advice was very limited.

2002 Review of Harmful to Minors by Judith Levine (University of Minnesota Press, Minneapolis)

2003 Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Super Ped! Review of The Moralist by Rod Downey (Great Mirror Press, Ormond Beach, Florida, 2001)

2006 A wasted opportunity. Review of Be Careful Who You Love: Inside the Michael Jackson Case by Diane Dimond

2006 Around Jackson, not ‘on’ him; Review of On Michael Jackson by Margo Jefferson

2009 An epic voyage of non-discovery Review of The Michael Jackson Tapes: A Tragic Icon Reveals His Soul in Intimate Conversation, by Schmuley Boteach

2009 Aphrodite's new angle is just as slanted as her old one: Review of Michael Jackson Conspiracy by Aphrodite Jones.

2009 Brüno meets Jacko Review of Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson by Ian Halperin.

2010 Michael Jackson's Dangerous Liaisons. Leicester: Troubador, ISBN 1848762267.

2011 Comment on The Role of Androphilia in the Psychosexual Development of Boys by David Riegel. International Journal of Sexual Health, 23:3,157-157

2011 Love is confoundedly complicated! Review of Tiger, Tiger: A Memoir, by Margaux Fragoso. O'Carroll brought this review in draft form to the attention of leading academics on a specialist online forum in December 2011, together with his views on a journal article by feminist philosopher Claudia Card. The forum, with access by invitation only, comprises nearly 400 scholars, mainly specialist academic researchers and clinicians in sex-related fields. A day of so later one of those academics, Michael Seto, author of the most authoritative recent book on paedophilia (Pedophilia and Sexual Offending Against Children: Theory, Assessment, and Intervention, published in 2007 by the American Psychological Association) posted to express his appreciation of O'Carroll's "informative and thoughtful posts" over a sustained period. This could be seen as significant given that Seto is a leading world expert in, effectively, combating child sexual abuse. Unsurprisingly, Seto added that he and O'Carroll "may not agree on any number of points, but ..." The review is to be submitted for publication in Culture and Sexuality.

2012 Of Goode and evil; Review of Paedophiles in Society: Reflecting on Sexuality, Abuse and Hope, By Sarah D. Goode; Palgrave Macmillan, London, 2011. A review for the Magnus Hirschfeld Archive for Sexology, Humboldt University of Berlin.

2023 Commentary on the Book Entitled Sexual Violence Against Children in Britain Since 1965: Trailing Abuse by Nick Basannavar. Palgrave Macmillan. 2021. ISBN 978-3-030-83147-9

See also

• A Decent Life: The Dissenting Narrative of Tom O'Carroll
• Paedophilia:The Radical Case (book)
• Commentary on the Book Entitled Sexual Violence Against Children in Britain Since 1965: Trailing Abuse by Nick Basannavar.

External links

• http://www.ipce.info/host/radicase/preface.htm
• http://www.williamapercy.com/wiki/index.php?title=Tom_O%27Carroll_Biography
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tom_O%27Carroll
• Tom O'Carroll (Newgon Wiki)
• Michael Jackson’s Dangerous Liaisons
• Heretic TOC- Blog
• This man is a pedophile, and proud of it Meet the activist (Tom O'Carroll) whose life’s work is arguing that pedophilia is OK. (Corinne Purtill - Global Post, US)