Lambeth Councillor resigns after arrest over porn allegations

[DJWrongspeed]

I got so much rubbish through my door from the Lib-Dems I voted green in stead

 

[gaijingirl]

I got so much rubbish through my door from the Lib-Dems I voted green in stead

that and the "Toren Smith flyer" swung our votes too.

 

[ellmann164]

LMAO Dickhead

A disciple of ProperTidy I see. Welcome.

 

[ellmann164]

Tweet on Labour website:

"Labour increased it's vote share in the Tulse Hill byelection yesterday - congratulations to Cllr Ruth Ling, and thanks to all that helped. 10 minutes ago"

Surprised that Labour increased its majority. 52% vs. Lib Dem's 31% (based on an impressive 21% turnout!). Lib Dems must have sent out quite literally ten flyers for every mailing we received for any other party so must have just pissed people off. The gf decided not to vote Lib Dem on the grounds that their campaign wasted so much paper!

Chris Nicholson did eventually reply to my email saying that they review their campaigning standards after each election so hopefully some sort of message will have got through.

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I do hope you didnt take what Chris Nicholson said at face value.

Someone should write a book about all the nasty malicious dishonest opportunist campaigns the LibDems have run in London and elsewhere over the last 20-30 years.

 

[George X George]

The cyber-cops who track down and catch the people who like looking at child pornography have my utmost admiration. Child pornography is utterly disgusting and the worst crime imaginable. It should really be called child rape. Anyone in any doubt should just consult the Wikipedia entry on the subject if you have a strong enough stomach. Believe me it's far, far worse than you could imagine.
As for Toren Smith, as others have said, he hasn't been convicted of anything yet and, yes, he deserves a fair trial. But, while I have no idea how, the cyber-cops who chase the people who look at such stuff do catch them. So they must have had reasonable suspicion at least.
We'll have to wait and see the result of the trial.

 

[George X George]

The Fib Dems are complete rubbish of course. I agree with all the comments made against them above.

 

[George X George]

A Fair Trial

The downloading of pornography from the internet is a serious offence, particularly if it contains images of the abuse of young children - not only because of the atrocities which are committed on the victims, but because payments made to the owners of the websites holding such material invariably support serious organised crime.

That said, it is depressing that the Leader of Lambeth's Labour Party, in whichToren Smith served for more than 15 years, has chosen to publish a statement alleging that Mr. Smith has resigned for personal reasons 'at the Labour Party's request'.

Most of those who vote Labour believe passionately in the idea of a fair and just society, and in the principle that everyone should be presumed innocent until proven guilty; and the more heinous the offence, the more important it is that this principle should be upheld.

Mr. Smith served his constituents in Tulse Hill well, and is generally well respected throughout Lambeth, so it is most offensive that anyone - and particularly a fellow Member -should make such a statement, which must imply that his Party believes Mr. Smith to be guilty.

In these circumstances how can Mr. Smith hope for a fair trial?

It is also depressing that this blog (and the South London Press and Streatham Guardian, also) should have given such prominence to photographs of Mr. Smith, which, because of the nature of the alleged offence, must surely put his safety, if not his very life, at risk.

Downloading pornography in general from the internet is no crime at all. Child pornography is another matter entirely. The women (and men) featured in general pornography are paid, consenting adults; no different in principle from the women on Page Three of The Sun. It's totally different with children.

If indecent images are found on Toren Smith's PC he will be found guilty. If not he will be acquitted. Simple as that I think. The jury will not be swayed by gossip, just this evidence or lack of it. I really don't think that the police are going to fabricate evidence against him. The specialist police unit involved in these sort of cases have quite enough work catching the real criminals.

 

[Tricky Skills]

To bring this story to some sort of conclusion:

"A former Lambeth councillor who admitted possessing more than 94,000 images and videos of abused children, and was looking at porn when police raided his house, has escaped jail.

Toren Smith, of Lilford Road, Camberwell, was given a two year suspended sentence at Southwark Crown Court today, after earlier pleading guilty to 24 counts of possessing and making indecent images of children."

Irrespective of who he is, escaping a jail sentence seems to make the former Labour Cllr a very, very lucky man.

Sickening though.

 

[ellmann164]

I have to say I told you so.

I told you he would be charged and he was. I told you to be careful about who you were defending until you knew what the police and the Labour leadership knew and I was right.

Having said that, this was much much more serious than I ever imagined. 777 movies. 94,000 images.

You don't build such a collection overnight. Such a collection would take years to amass. I thought we were talking in terms of dozens rather than tens of thousands of images and videos and that he would get off with a caution.

I agree he is a lucky man.

 

[ellmann164]

Toren Smith was not only lucky in terms of his sentence. He was also lucky in terms of his media coverage.

Toren Smith had a very good relationship with the local and national press, having fed them many stories over the years. That's why papers like The (national) Guardian, the SLP and the Evening Standard either didn't mention the story at all or downplayed it to the point of non-existence, a strange thing to do given it's evident news value.

This is one of the the worst sex scandals ever to involve a London councillor and easily the worst sex scandal ever to involve a Lambeth councillor, worse even than the one involving a Labour councillor back in the ealy 90s who was prosecuted for child sex abuse.

Toren Smith's actions facilitated the abuse of dozens of children, not just one or two, terrible though that 90s scandal was for its victims. The police and the courts said so in black and white.

Once again, a very lucky man.

 

[man_traic]

Even looks like Astley.

He totally looks like a pedo

 

[co-op]

He totally looks like a pedo

Oh absolutely you can always tell 'em just by looking.