“He played down the whole episode and wanted an assurance that I wouldn’t run anything”

Don Hale, former newspaper editor

“I couldn’t give that and he went away very disappointed.”
Mr Hale says the offices of his paper, the Bury Messenger, were then ­raided by Special Branch.
He said officers waved a restrictive D-Notice and warned him of imprisonment if he failed to hand over secret papers obtained from Mrs Castle.
He recalled: “I got to know Barbara very well and she was a real firebrand and when she got the bit between her teeth she would not let it go.
“We had talked about a potential paedophile ring with MPs before but she said no one would listen and the national papers didn’t want to know.
“She asked me if I would take a look and run a story from her point of view.
“She objected to any funding of this organisation and was very concerned about the speed of their infiltration and the number of prominent names who were allegedly supporting them.
“Barbara was horrified, too, at the prospect of Parliament approving legalised sex with children, often under the guise of educating them, and mentioned an influx of rent boys and unsavoury and unfortunate situations that had been covered up by the authorities.