'Protected by the rainbow flag!' Campaigner blasts Pride 'cowardice' after founder receives 30-year sentence for child rape

Ms Bindel claimed that institutional "cowardice" and a fear of being branded "transphobic" or "homophobic" prevented officials from acting on clear warnings.

She said: "What Stephen Ireland was doing was hiding behind the rainbow flag. And thanks in part to transgender ideology but also broader queer ideology, he was able to present himself as someone who was "protecting trans kids" and "protecting queer kids".

"Now, I grew up in the 1970s as a young lesbian. When I later became an activist for equality and liberation for lesbians and gay men, there was no such thing as 'queer children' or 'gay children'. You never ascribed a sexuality to a child. That wasn’t just a matter of decency, it was a basic safeguarding principle.

"Back then, we understood that adults who sexualised children or ascribed adult sexual identities to them were deeply suspect. Frankly, we saw them as potential child abusers. But this ideology allowed Stephen Ireland to cast himself as one of the good guys someone who positioned himself as the gatekeeper, effectively saying: 'You have to come through me if you want to challenge anything to do with trans children'.

"There was a photograph of a child in a leather pub, wearing fetish gear, being led on a leather lead by Stephen Ireland, which was then shared on social media as a celebratory image.

"He was telling us exactly who he was. But because anyone who dared to question these ideologies was immediately labelled and shut down, he was protected.

She added: "Stephen Ireland was the self-appointed head of pride in Surrey, which is a lower county in England that he was operating from, with some cohorts deciding, he said, to bring together the LGBTQ plus community in celebration of diversity. "

And he operated in plain sight, despite there being various red flags with other men that he was, as it eventually came out in court, having large sham sex orgies with Wiles targeting young, vulnerable boys and getting away with it.

"So the scandal is that the man who was lauded as setting up for setting up a big organisation for the good of the community, where he was lauded by police, social services, foster care agencies, Surrey County Council and others, ended up, of course, being exposed as a child abuser."

GB News Originals host Connie Shaw asked: "I always find it mind-boggling that men who aren’t involved in these groups, particularly those in positions of authority, including within the police, don’t act more decisively when concerns are raised.

"These are men who understand male behaviour and male sexuality. Many of them have children of their own. They know there are men out there who are dangerous.

"I’ve heard other heterosexual men say it’s astonishing that some people don’t see the warning signs, because men who’ve spent time around other men understand how some minds work.

"So my first question is this: why do other men often with no involvement in LGBT organisations, step in to defend these men when there are clear safeguarding concerns?

"And secondly, why is it so often women who also rush to their defence? What is it about this situation that leads some women to defend men even when serious red flags are present?"

She responded: "Men like Crispin Hunt, or others like him, often have very little to lose. Their instinct is to close ranks and defend other men.

"We’ve seen this pattern repeatedly over decades, including throughout my own campaigning against sexual violence.

"We saw it in cases of child sexual abuse by clergy, in group homes and in other institutions, where concerns were dismissed, minimised or waved away as exaggeration.

"The response is often: 'So what?' or 'We don’t really believe it.'

"For these men, defending other men is easier. They’re not the ones caught in the crossfire. There’s less at stake for them personally, and in many cases, they simply don’t care enough to challenge the behaviour.

"When it comes to women, however, the dynamic is very different.

"Take Gavin Stephens, for example, who told Lisa Townsend she had three years to make it up to him and get back in his good books after she quite rightly challenged his behaviour, actions and words.

"She was the one expected to capitulate.

"So when women defend men like Stephen Island, what we’re really seeing is something far more familiar: straightforward, old-fashioned sexism."

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