Goodbye to the Independent newspaper

[Dom Traynor]

The local hackney paper interviewed the mayor who agreed they shared a house. Claimed he wasn't aware of the arrest until notified through council which is possible.

To be fair political parties normally drop people as soon as they become aware of stuff like this so it seems unlikely a leading figure knew.

 

[DaveCinzano]

O hai

Former newspaper editor given suspended sentence for viewing child sexual abuse

Peter Wilby, former editor of the Independent on Sunday, had more than 100 indecent images of children on his computer

www.theguardian.com

My editor trashed my inquiry into child sexual abuse. Now I know why | Dean Nelson

Peter Wilby, who spent years denigrating victims in the media, has been convicted of possessing the most appalling images

www.theguardian.com

 

[May Kasahara]

O hai

Former newspaper editor given suspended sentence for viewing child sexual abuse

Peter Wilby, former editor of the Independent on Sunday, had more than 100 indecent images of children on his computer

www.theguardian.com

He admitted a sexual interest in children and had a store of the worst kind of images going back years. Why is it a suspended sentence and only five years on the register, rather than actual prison and on the register for the rest of his worthless life?

 

[kenny g]

He admitted a sexual interest in children and had a store of the worst kind of images going back years. Why is it a suspended sentence and only five years on the register, rather than actual prison and on the register for the rest of his worthless life?

According to these details he is on for ten. I don't disagree that he could do with some actual punishment. I can't see why he couldn't have his home taken off him for starters. Former national newspaper editor had over 100 indecent images of children

 

[agricola]

He admitted a sexual interest in children and had a store of the worst kind of images going back years. Why is it a suspended sentence and only five years on the register, rather than actual prison and on the register for the rest of his worthless life?

I think the words "former newspaper editor" should give you all the explanation you need there.

 

[Dystopiary]

From the Guardian article DaveCinzano linked to above:

As New Statesman editor, he published articles denigrating the north Wales victims as “damaged” and manipulated by journalists such as me, all part of a modern witch-hunt in which the real victims were those accused of abuse. The Anglesea libel verdict was regularly cited as evidence of the witch-hunt.

Anglesea’s conviction in 2016 didn’t give Wilby pause for reflection – he shrugged it off and stuck to his campaign. In the Guardian, he wrote in support of the paedophile former pop star Gary Glitter and chastised the Sun’s campaign to identify child sex offenders.

He also used a column in the Times Educational Supplement to decry what he portrayed as the wokery of overzealous child protection. He called for a more relaxed approach to “intimate relations” between adults and children.

I think this is about right regarding Wilby and the British press:

This is not one of those tedious complaints that a story has not been addressed at all when it manifestly has — the BBC, Times, Guardian, and Southend Echo have all run stories as well as the previously mentioned coverage — but about the limited scale, breadth, and intensity of attention. Had Wilby not been a journalist and particularly one whose career touched a large number of publications, his conviction as a person of power and influence would be catnip to columnists.

There have been little more than whispers about Wilby because the British press has an instinct to circle the wagons and silence the stories that make it look worst. Wilby has avoided prison and the usual voices that would howl at the injustice and demand real punishment are conspicuously silent.

Just whispers about Wilby