Labour members told they would be reported to party’s London region if they ask questions about massive safeguarding issues surrounding right-winger’s ‘most serious’ child-rape image collection
Paedophile former Hackney councillor Thomas Dewey, who received a slap on the wrist from a court despite being found guilty of possessing the most serious category of images showing rape and abuse of children, was allowed to stand in local elections by the Labour party despite having already been arrested in connection with the possession of images in a category that can include bestiality and serious genital harm.
Dewey, an organiser for hard-right pressure group Labour First, was found guilty last month after admitting the offences.
But Skwawkbox can reveal that Labour members in Hackney have complained they have been told that – if they ask questions about the Dewey case, the serious safeguarding issues it raises or why the party continued to allow his candidacy after he was arrested – they will be reported for disciplinary action on the part of Labour’s London office.
This is not the first time the party has been exposed putting reputation and political ends before its safeguarding duties. Whistleblower Elaina Cohen was told by a selection panel that she could not stand as a party candidate – because she had blown the whistle to protect vulnerable domestic violence victims from abuse and exploitation by a party staffer who was in an affair with a right-wing MP. Party leader Keir Starmer and general secretary David Evans had participated in the cover-up of the allegations.
And Starmer protected, for many months, at least two alleged sex pests in his shadow cabinet and kept a sex-pest staffer in his team, while confirmed racist and right-wing sex-pest Neil Coyle was welcomed back into the party despite the findings of two investigations against him.
And London Labour has ignored reports of abuse and threats toward a Muslim woman councillor by right-wingers in the West Midlands, while London Labour moved to protect alleged racists from press scrutiny and party discipline.
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