….and the man who wrote the text for his ‘collection’ books is a notorious paedophile….who plied his trade on Amazon
Unrepentant Graham Ovendon
This extract is from a recent auction report on art-related items:
This lot No 1533: States of Grace Photographs 1964-1989 photographer Graham Ovenden, first edition, published by Ophelia Editions, Amsterdam 1992, text by Lawrence A. Stanley
Price information:
Estimate € 1800 – € 2000
StartPrice € 1500
Not Sold
Number of Bids 0
Clearly and literally, zero interest. And as some of you may already know, a renowned Peer of the realm also recently sold all his ‘nymph’ paintings too. I think this is perhaps called ‘running for cover’. Or not. We mustn’t comment any more, oooh no. Note the town in which Ophelia editions is based, by the way.
But my point this morning is an investigation of text writer Lawrence A. Stanley. And a major hat-tip goes to regular Slog threader Bob ‘Chewie’ Chewter for digging this stuff up. For not only is Stanley a vigorous paedophile, his past adds yet more evidence of covert but active international child porn and victim trafficking.
Lawrence Stanley is a fugitive, wanted in Canada and the Netherlands on sexual abuse charges. He is now thought to be in Brazil, avoiding extradition to face charges relating to many facets of child abuse and paedophilic publication/image circulation.
At one time, Lawrence was a practising attorney in New York. His specialism? Defending men being charged with child pornography. And beyond his career in the US judicial system, Lawrence was a promoter of the ‘beauty’ of child pornography. Just like Harriet Harman, in fact, he saw paedophilia as part of the rainbow of sexual experience.
For many years, Stanley peddled his paedophile propaganda via the infamous newsletter Uncommon Desires, which included nude photos of young girls, and positioned itself thus: “The voice of a politically conscious girl-love underground.”
Stanley then set-up an online bookstore “Alessandra’s Smile,” selling only pro-pedophile texts, pleas to lower the age of consent, child erotica books, and magazines.
He did this openly through Amazon. Amazon is still knowingly selling some of them. These books were and are published for the sexual pleasure of paedophiles, depicting children being taken advantage of, published by a serial abuser whose legal knowledge enables him to skirt around most legal systems. Despite widespread protests, Amazon.com continues to profit from child sexual exploitation.
So I doubt if Dave’s risible ‘internet porn ban’ is going to pull much weight there.
In June 2013, Graham Ovenden dodged prison after being found guilty of a string of sex charges against children. The judge gave him a 12-month prison sentence suspended for two years. But following a public outcry, his sentence was referred to the Court of Appeal on the basis of undue leniency at the start of July.
At his trial in April, Ovenden (charged with indecent assault on three small girls) played the “I’m the innocent victim of a witch hunt” card. That may well be true. It may also be true that his pictures of small girls are not obscene – in my view, they’re questionable, but not obscene. I have to say I’m also opposed (no matter how daft the sentence) to reappraisal on the basis of ‘public outcry’. That strikes me as mob rule: what should always apply is the Rule of Law. Being a judge is not a popularity contest, no matter how dotty some of them are.
But this new background to the case does suggest that – unless he is a complete idiot – Ovenden know perfectly well who his publisher was, his profession, his predilections, and his history.
So rather than have Ovenden’s sentence increased By Public Demand, my suggestion is this: accept the suspended sentence on assault charges, and wind Plod up to have a look at the case against Ovenden of knowingly conspiring to work with pornography traffickers. And charge Amazon with the same offence.
The Slog 