ABC issues stark legal threat against average Aussie who re-published the most revolting segment the broadcaster has EVER aired from 50 years ago: ‘Physically delicious’
The ABC has threatened legal action against a ‘public crusader’ who published a 50-year-old radio segment in which men chatted openly about having sex with ‘beautiful’ children.
The panel discussion featuring self-declared ‘pederasts’ was so offensive the ABC declared it posed ‘a risk of harm to the community’ and should never have been conducted.
Economist and former political adviser John Adams was frustrated the ABC would not release the audio, which he obtained in 2023 after agreeing not to share it with others.
Mr Adams breached that undertaking when he posted the 42-minute segment on YouTube at 5pm on Monday.
It was taken down about 9.30pm after being viewed 23,000 times and replaced with the message: ‘This video has been removed for violating YouTube’s Community Guidelines.’
Two minutes before Mr Adams put the audio on YouTube, the ABC sent him a legal letter warning him not to publish it.
‘We understand you intend to publish ABC content on YouTube at 5pm today,’ it wrote.
‘In the ABC’s view, doing so would pose a serious risk to victims and would therefore be inappropriate.’
The ABC has threatened legal action against a man who published a 50-year-old radio segment in which men chatted openly about having sex with ‘beautiful’ children. The program was hosted by Richard Neville (above)
The letter also stated Mr Adams had agreed not to share the audio by any means and it would be ‘a very serious matter’ to breach its copyright.
‘The ABC will rely on this correspondence on the question of costs and/or damages should it be necessary for the ABC to seek injunctive relief if you proceed with publication despite the above matters.’
An ABC spokeswoman said on Tuesday afternoon that the corporation would not comment on any potential legal action against Mr Adams.
‘The ABC contacted YouTube and the video was removed for violating its community guidelines,’ she said.
After the clip was removed from YouTube, Mr Adams posted it on X, where by Tuesday afternoon it had attracted 100,000 impressions and been widely reposted.
NSW Upper House Libertarian MP John Ruddick delivered a speech in parliament on Tuesday in which he commended Mr Adams for publishing the segment.
The segment featured three self-confessed Australian pederasts aged in their 30s, as well as a teenager, who discussed having sex with much older men.
It was aired on the defunct Lateline program on July 14, 1975 and hosted by the late writer and social commentator Richard Neville.
Economist and former political adviser John Adams had been frustrated that the ABC would not allow him to share the audio, which was broadcast in July 1975 when Gough Whitlam (above, after his dismissal)
Mr Adams said the Lateline segment – titled ‘Pederasty’ – included ‘several shocking and despicable statements and admissions’.
Among the content of the program was the proposition that boys as young as 12 were able to give rational consent to sexual acts with men aged in their 30s and 40s.
The program also made a distinction between ‘paedophilia’ as being the sexual assault of a child by a man and ‘pederasty’ involving a homosexual relationship between a man and a boy.
The pederasts on the panel – Stephen, Colin and Richard – described using bribes to seduce young boys and loitering around school playgrounds for children.
One admitted that as a 12-year-old he had abused a boy aged three, prompting laughter from the others. Another admitted having 12 boys on a sexual roster.
There was discussion about young boys being ‘physically delicious’ and of seeking those with faces of ‘angelic beauty’.
The segment was met with immediate public outrage.
Morals campaigner and former NSW politician Fred Nile provided a tape of the program to police and federal Country Party MP Peter Nixon called for an inquiry.
According to Mr Adams, the Lateline segment – titled ‘Pederasty’ – included ‘several shocking and despicable statements and admissions’ and has not been re-broadcast in the past 50 years
Police Commissioner Fred Hanson said investigators would ‘study the situation, to see if the Vice Squad should be involved’.
ABC chairman Richard Downing said at the time the broadcaster’s intention was to ‘try to inform people about what [is] happening so that they might be forewarned and forearmed’.
He later said, ‘In general, men will sleep with young boys and that’s the sort of thing the community ought to know about’.
Mr Ruddick wrote to Police Minister Yasmin Catley in September of this year to ask if Mr Nile’s original report had ever been followed up.
In his notice of motion he called on the Upper House to ‘note its alarm over the ABC for threatening legal action against Mr Adams as a result of publishing this material’.
Mr Adams obtained a copy of the recording in July 2023 from the ABC’s archives department after paying $85 and signing a personal use release form.
He agreed not to share the audio to the public by any means, ‘including but not limited to communication via the internet or any social media platform’.
In response to Mr Adams’s threat to publish the audio, the ABC had said it would ‘act to enforce the obligation not to publish this material if our strict terms are not met’.
An ABC spokeswoman said on Tuesday afternoon the corporation would not comment on any potential legal action
‘It was a mistake by the ABC in 1975 to ever conduct this interview,’ an ABC spokeswoman said on Monday.
‘The interview does not meet the ABC’s editorial policies and given the risk of harm to the community it would be inappropriate to republish it.
‘The ABC has not authorised the republication or broadcast of the program and given its subject matter we maintain it should not be republished by anyone else.
‘The content was accessed via the ABC’s Community Access program under the agreement that it would be used in a private setting only.’
Mr Adams said he posted the audio on YouTube after writing to the ABC’s legal department in August requesting a release from his previous agreement ‘in order to inform the Australian people of our country’s shameful and evil history’.
The ABC’s manager for library services denied that request, stating the Pederasty segment was not available on any ABC platform.
In October 2018, Liberal senator Eric Abetz had raised concerns about the segment in a question to the Senate Standing Committee on Environment and Communications.
The ABC replied: ‘The ABC has no records of the interview, but according to contemporary reports the then ABC radio program Lateline interviewed three “self-confessed pederasts” in 1975.’
Mr Adams told the Daily Mail he was publishing the segment on his YouTube channel because he felt he was left with no option, and it was in the public interest.
‘After exhausting all political and legal options, I am going to breach the legal conditions imposed on me by the ABC to expose Australia’s dark history which I believe is in the public interest,’ he said.
‘The culture of corruption and concealment in Australia, especially around paedophilia, is so disgusting that a circuit breaker is needed.’
Richard Neville was best known as the co-founder of the counter-culture magazine OZ which was launched in Sydney in 1963, followed by a London version three years later when he was in his mid-20s.
In his 1970 book Power Play, Neville boasted of having a ‘hurricane f***’ with a ‘moderately attractive, intelligent, cherubic, fourteen-year-old girl from a nearby London comprehensive school’.
