Pro-trans group accused of safeguarding failures over convicted child abuser

LGBT Youth Scotland has come under fire after a co-author of one of its guides for gender-confused children was convicted of child sex offences.

Andrew Easton, who was found guilty of grooming and sharing indecent images, contributed to a 2010 “coming out” guide for pupils as young as 13. It claimed: “Transgender people are people whose gender identity – who they are internally or their ‘innate’ gender – is different to their physical body or the gender they were assigned at birth.”

In 2022-23, the controversial trans activist group received almost half a million pounds in grants from the Scottish Government, and a further £500,000 from local authorities and NHS organisations.

‘Serious questions’

Following Easton’s conviction, Scottish Conservative MSP Meghan Gallacher said: “This is a deeply disturbing situation. It is long overdue that we audit just how much public money this organisation receives and seek assurances over what safeguarding assessments are in place.”

Alba MSP Ash Regan added: “Serious questions must be asked about why Scottish children’s educational guidance is being shaped by unqualified lobby groups that not only overreach their published remit but operate without any apparent oversight.”

In 2009, LGBT Youth Scotland’s former Chief Executive James Rennie was sentenced to life in prison for child sex offences.

Conversion practices

Meanwhile, the Welsh Government is launching a review after it was revealed that it had commissioned a sex offender’s company to conduct a ‘conversion practices’ study.

Last year, the Welsh Government contracted Laurel Research Consulting Ltd to assess the “experiences of conversion practices among people aged 18+ in Wales” to “inform future policy development”.

James Mullen, who founded and directs the firm, was imprisoned for eight months in 2013 and would have still been on the sex offenders register when the research was commissioned.

A Government spokesperson reported that it “will be reviewing the information supplied in light of the details raised” and that the research will be published this Autumn.