Peter Hayman

Sir Peter Telford Hayman (14 June 1914 – 6 April 1992) In 1981 he was named in the House of Commons as a paedophile by Geoffrey Dickens MP.

Early and personal life Hayman was born in Deal, Kent, England, the son of Hilda (Waite-Browne) and Charles Henry Telford Hayman. He was educated at Stowe School and Worcester College, Oxford. (1961–64) and then deputy commandant of the British military government in West Berlin from 1964 to 1966. The Daily Telegraph characterised him as an "MI6 operative".

His obituary in The Independent gave his career history as: Assistant Principal Home Office 1937–39 Ministry of Home Security 1939–41 Assistant Private Secretary to Home Secretary 1941–42 Principal Home Office 1942, 1945–49 Personal Assistant to Chief Staff Officer to the Minister MOD 1949–52 Assistant Secretary MOD 1950 UK Delegation to NATO 1952–54 Foreign Office 1954 Counsellor Belgrade 1955–58 Assignment to Malta 1958 Counsellor Baghdad 1959–61 Director General of British Information Services New York 1961–64 Minister and Deputy Commandant British Military Government in Berlin 1964–66 Assistant Undersecretary FO 1966–69 Deputy Under Secretary of State FCO 1969–70 High Commissioner in Canada 1970–74

Hayman in 1990 published Soult: Napoleon's Maligned Marshal. In 1979 he reached the semi-finals of the BBC television quiz Mastermind.

Paedophilia activism

In October 1978, Hayman left a package of paedophilia-related material on a London bus. The police traced the package and discovered that Hayman, under the pseudonym "Peter Henderson", had used an apartment in Bayswater, London, to conduct obscene correspondence. In the apartment, police found 45 diaries describing six years of "sexual fantasies" concerning children and activities with prostitutes, articles of female clothing and obscene literature. He was investigated by police but released without charge after being given a warning not to send obscene material through the post.

In November 1980, Private Eye magazine revealed this event. In 1981, using parliamentary privilege, MP Geoffrey Dickens asked why Hayman had not been prosecuted, with Dickens saying: "How did such a potential blackmail risk come to hold highly sensitive posts at the MOD and NATO?" He also asked the Leader of the House of Commons to "investigate the security implications of diaries found in the diplomat's London flat which contained accounts of sexual exploits". In 1981, the Attorney General Sir Michael Havers replied, "I am in agreement with the Director of Public Prosecutions' [Sir Thomas Chalmers Hetherington QC] advice not to prosecute Sir Peter Hayman and the other persons with whom he had carried on an obscene correspondence" adding that, while Hayman had been found to have received pornographic material through the post, it was not of an extreme nature, was non-commercial and in a sealed envelope, so did not warrant prosecution. There was much debate and condemnation in the international press of these events.

Havers said in parliament that, while Hayman was a member of the Paedophile Information Exchange, he was never a member of the executive committee, so was not prosecuted as others were for publishing contact advertisements. In 1984, Hayman was convicted and fined for an act of gross indecency with another adult in a public lavatory. The Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher, warned Hayman that, should he be known to repeat the offence, he would be stripped of his honours.

On 30 January 2015, it was revealed that a file was found in The National Archives titled "SECURITY. Sir Peter Hayman: allegations against former public official of unnatural sexual proclivities; security aspects". One document within the file related to the briefing given to then-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher concerning Hayman's sexual fantasies related to children. The document also stated that there was no evidence these fantasies had been carried out. A further document outlined the official reaction and response to be made by government ministers if questioned about his 1978 arrest. A different document states that Hayman was vulnerable to blackmail by foreign powers because of his "sexual perversion", but foreign security services were not yet aware.