November 2015 Former Labour party agent jailed for grooming schoolboy A former Labour party agent in Peterborough has been jailed for four years after he sexually groomed a teenage boy. Andrew Palmer (53) showed no emotion as he was locked up at Huntingdon Crown Court on Friday. The court was told he had pleaded guilty to sexually touching the teenage boy once, and asking for naked photos of the lad in exchange for money. Palmer was jailed for 20 months in February at Peterborough Crown Court after twice breaching a sexual offences prevention order and a community order. He had twice spent time behind bars for possessing indecent images of children, and first committed sexual offences in 1979. At Friday’s hearing, the court was told Palmer had touched the boy earlier this year. The boy had then asked to borrow money from Palmer, and he had asked for indecent pictures. Gemma Stokes, prosecuting, said phone records showed Palmer had contacted the boy dozens of times in a one week period. She said: “The offending has caused harm to the victim. The was a significant degree of planning. There was grooming.
“The prosecution say he is a significant risk to children. Judge Peter Murphy, sentencing, said ‘On any view this is a serious matter.’ He added: “You have a number of sexual offences recorded against you. “From 2007 onwards a disturbing pattern emerges of you possessing or making images of being in breach of a sexual offences prevention order.” Palmer, of no fixed abode, had pleaded guilty to one count of sexual activity with a child and one count of breaching a sexual offences prevention order at a previous hearing. He was given a two year sentence for each count, to be served consecutively. He was also ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge. Palmer was agent for former member of the Peterborough Labour Party Nicola Day-Dempsey at the 2014 local elections. In a number of emails sent by Palmer when he was jailed for different sexual offences – show that he regularly signed himself as the campaign coordinator for Lisa Forbes. The emails also indicate that Palmer had a number of important posts within the Peterborough Labour Party. He signed himself as the Peterborough CLP assistant secretary and the South and East Labour Party branch secretary and the East and Dogsthorpe Labour Team Member. He was expelled from the Labour party earlier this year. Following his sentence in February, the East of England Labour Party said they were not aware of Palmer’s criminal history when he was working for them. Cllr Forbes said she and other members of the party felt ‘betrayed’ by Palmer. She said: “We were all as disgusted and shocked as everyone else when we heard about his actions. “We are pleased the full weight of the law has been used against him. Hopefully this can act as a deterrent. “We were unaware of Palmer’s past. When you have an organisation as big as the Labour party – or any major political party – it is impossible to check on every single person. “I felt let down by him. We all felt betrayed by him. “A lot of people were taken in by him. He was very clever, gaining people’s trust.” February 2015 Peterborough Labour Party official jailed for child sex crimes A paedophile who helped Labour Party members in Peterborough seek election was yesterday sent to prison. Andrew Palmer (52) was sentenced to 20 months in jail after twice breaching a sexual offences prevention order and a community order. Palmer, who had been an Labour electoral agent for Peterborough City Council nominees, had twice spent time behind bars for possessing indecent images of children. The second offence took place in 2007 and earned him eight months in prison. Palmer had been the agent in the 2012 council elections for Labour group leader Nazim Khan as well as Jo Johnson and Richard Knowles. Craig McDougall, prosecuting, said that the police had given Palmer the highest rating for a sexual offender. He added: “The local constabulary have significant concerns about him.” The sexual offences prevention order he had breached was handed out in October 2014, for breaching a previous order, and prevented him from spending unsupervised contact with a person under 16 years of age. The first breach occurred on December 29 when he paid an unexpected visit to a house where a mother and her young daughter lived. The mother at that time knew nothing about his previous convictions or the sexual prevention order. The second breach was on February 2, 2015 when police arrested him and he admitted to having deleted messages from a phone messaging application called WhatsApp. The content of the messages were not disclosed. He had pleaded guilty to the charges on February 10 and was sentenced yesterdayat Peterborough Crown Court. Edward Barr, defending Palmer, said: “This is not the most serious of breaches. “It’s likely the circumstances of the 29th of December suggest something sinister in him going to the house and being in the company of the child. “But his previous behaviour in their presence had not been suspicious.” Barr, who asked that Palmer receive a suspended sentence, added: “There has been no attempt at supervision or therapy. “No matter what the outcome of today is, his life in the part of Peterborough that he lives in will be in trouble. “I would ask for one last chance for him.” Sentencing Palmer, Judge Peter Murphy said: “It seems clear to me that you were aware from the end of October that not only you were barred from certain activity on the internet, but not to have unsupervised contact with young children without informing a parent or guardian of previous convictions. “You turned up under cover of working with a housing association. You had several phones with you and the implication was clear. “On the second count, there is not much information on what was deleted on your phone. “But a previous matter indicated you have a clear interest in paedophilia and and the pornographic images of young children.” Describing Palmer as a real risk to the public, Judge Murphy added: “It’s quite clear your offences were a calculated defiance of court orders.” Palmer received eight months in prison for both of the two breaches of the 
sexual offences prevention order which will run consecutively. For his breach of a community order, which was handed to him last year, he received an additional four months. In total, Palmer had seven previous convictions for 13 offences, the first of which was for indecent assault in 1979. Labour Party councillors in Peterborough were told to direct any press inquiries to the East of England spokesman. The spokesman said Palmer will be excluded from the party. He would not confirm his roles in the party, when he was involved, whether anyone knew about his past convictions and what the party thought of the sentencing. Lisa Forbes, Labour’s parliamentary candidate for Peterborough, pictured with Palmer, spoke to the Peterborough Telegraph but had not answered our questions by the time the paper went to press. Councillor Nazim Khan said: “This is the first I knew about his previous history and I’m shocked. I personally don’t know him.” Cllr Jo Johnson said: “He ran my council campaign in 2012. I don’t think anybody knew about him. I must admit I liked him to start with but I’m disgusted now.” Former Labour now Independent councillor John Knowles said: “He was a really nasty piece of work, but there’s no way you could have known his past.” The mother involved in the court case said: “I wish he had got longer. I was shocked. We knew nothing.”