XPost: can.politics, alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.homosexuality   
   XPost: alt.politics.obama   
   From: emailme@example.com   
      
   Sound familiar?  "Gay rights campaigner"?  Let us count the   
   names.   
      
   A paedophile ring has been smashed after eight men were found   
   guilty of a horrifying catalogue of more than 50 child   
   pornography and abuse charges.   
      
   Among the crimes was a shocking sexual attack carried out on a   
   three-month-old baby boy by an executive adviser on child sex   
   issues.   
      
   James Rennie, chief executive of a publicly-funded gay rights   
   group, was one of the men exposed yesterday as members of   
   Scotland's biggest paedophile ring.   
      
   Rennie, 38, molested the toddler son of unsuspecting friends - a   
   little boy he had been trusted to babysit - recording the abuse   
   and sharing it with other perverts.   
      
   In the course of the police investigation, the boy's parents   
   were forced to watch a video of their baby son being violated by   
   Rennie.   
      
   Last night, after the eight men were found guilty of a string of   
   child sex charges at the High Court in Edinburgh, the child's   
   parents reacted with disgust.   
      
   They said: 'For over 15 years, James Rennie seemed the closest   
   of family friends and it is hard to put into words the extent of   
   the betrayal he has exacted upon us.'   
      
   During their investigations, police recovered tens of thousands   
   of still and moving images of the most vile child abuse.   
      
   Police sources revealed yesterday that the activities of 70   
   other men around the UK with links to the case are being   
   investigated.   
      
   More than 35 people have been arrested or been subject to   
   enforcement action. Two investigations are continuing in   
   Scotland.   
      
   One of the most worrying aspects of the case is the way Rennie   
   was able to reach a position where he could influence Executive   
   policy on child sexuality.   
      
   A trained teacher, Rennie became the boss of LGBT Youth   
   Scotland, a publicly-funded support group for lesbian, gay,   
   bisexual and transgender young people.   
      
   He took on the £40,000 a year role when the group was set up in   
   2003 and became the Executive's most important and influential   
   adviser on gay issues affecting children.   
      
   Under his leadership, the group backed proposals to allow gay   
   adoption. As well as appearing in the Scottish parliament, he   
   was invited to a Royal Garden Party and to Downing Street.   
      
   esterday, Rennie, from Edinburgh, was found guilty of indecently   
   abusing the baby boy. The abuse began when the child was three   
   months old and continued for several years. Rennie filmed and   
   photographed himself committing the abuse, sent the images to   
   others and allowed another man to listen on the phone while he   
   molested the child.   
      
   He allowed the boy, whom he called his 'nephew', to be abused by   
   another paedophile and also offered him to other deviants in a   
   series of emails.   
      
   When his home was raided in December 2007, Rennie had gone to   
   the trouble of hiding computer hard drives, discs and CDs in a   
   gap next to the water tank in his kitchen. Between these storage   
   devices and his laptop computer, he was found to be in   
   possession of thousands of images, many of them at the most   
   extreme level of the scale.   
      
   Rennie carried out his vile activities as part of a Scottish   
   paedophile ring swapping images of child pornography on the   
   internet.   
      
   He was suspended as soon as LGBT Youth Scotland was told of his   
   arrest in December 2007 and resigned soon afterwards.   
      
   Last night, a spokesman for LGBT Youth Scotland, which received   
   £1.1million in 2008 from the Executive, councils and health   
   boards, said: 'We are appalled by the abuse and exploitation of   
   children by James Rennie, and wholeheartedly welcome his   
   conviction. Our immediate thoughts are with the children and   
   families who have been directly, and indirectly, abused by him   
   and the other co-accused also convicted.   
      
   'We had no suspicion whatsoever of the crimes James Rennie was   
   committing. He was obviously skilled at hiding his actions and   
   adept at deceiving people. There is no suggestion James Rennie   
   directly threatened the safety of young people accessing our   
   services.'   
      
   Last night the Executive said that it would continue to fund   
   LGBT.   
      
   When he was arrested, Rennie had a steady boyfriend, but trawled   
   the internet looking for gay sex dates.   
      
   He also used the internet to meet other paedophiles, including   
   Neil Strachan, a child molester who was jailed for three years   
   at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in 1997 for abusing a boy of between   
   five and seven.   
      
   Strachan, 41, joined Rennie for a sex session with Rennie's   
   'nephew' at his flat in Meadowbank when the boy was between one   
   and three.   
      
   Rennie then boasted about the encounter to another paedophile,   
   Lachlan Anderson, 51, from Cumbernauld, Dunbartonshire.   
      
   Anderson is currently serving a 20-month sentence after being   
   caught with a collection of child pornography, including images   
   of Rennie abusing the child. He was brought from jail to give   
   evidence at the trial.   
      
   Strachan was found guilty of attempting to sodomise a different   
   18-month-old toddler on the night of Hogmanay 2005 at his flat   
   in the Dalry area of Edinburgh.   
      
   Last night, the boy's mother said: ' The anguish I feel towards   
   Mr Strachan is indescribable.   
      
   'I feel that no matter what punishment is given to Mr Strachan   
   it will never be able to compensate for the hurt, devastation   
   and great deal of stress brought to me and my family.   
      
   'Mr Strachan used and abused our trust in order to satisfy his   
   and others' sick needs.'   
      
   Strachan's 23-year-old boyfriend Colin Slaven was cleared of   
   taking part in the sex act, which was photographed and sent to   
   Rennie.   
      
   Rennie involved John Milligan, 40, in his sick acts by allowing   
   him to listen to the baby boy being abused.   
      
   Milligan also discussed getting his hands on the child - and   
   passed on images of Rennie's abuse to others.   
      
   The paedophile ring was uncovered when photos of naked boys were   
   found on Strachan's computer. He handed it in for repair at a   
   company in England in 2007.   
      
   A computer engineer found one indecent image of a child on the   
   machine and police were called in.   
      
   An examination by Northumbria Police revealed other images.   
      
   The inquiry moved to Edinburgh, where Operation Algebra was set   
   up in October 2007 by Lothian and Borders Police.   
      
   Detective Superintendent Allan Jones, senior investigating   
   officer in Operation Algebra, said of the men: 'Many of them   
   wouldn't stand out from a general member of the public; but in   
   the background they lead this double life, looking at some of   
   the most vile material you would ever care to imagine.   
      
   'Quite what motivates them and why they take this course of   
   action I really don't know. What I do know is we can't be   
   forgiving of it and we've got to pursue it to the nth degree to   
   make sure that this material is stopped.'   
      
   A jury found Rennie, Strachan, Milligan, Ross Webber, 27, and   
   Craig Boath, 24, guilty of plotting to arrange access to   
   children to carry out acts of gross sexual abuse. It is the   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)