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Toby Young
Toby Young is the editor-in-chief of the Daily Sceptic. He is also the general secretary of the Free Speech Union and an associate editor of the Spectator.
According to a report on BBC News yesterday, a former Labour councillor, Liron Velleman, has pleaded guilty to child sexual offences. That’s the same Liron Velleman who in 2022 gave evidence to a House of Commons Committee scrutinising the Online Safety Bill where he was described as a “political organiser” for HOPE Not Hate.
A Labour councillor who sent and requested lewd videos to someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl has pleaded guilty to child sex offences.
Liron Velleman, 30, was a councillor for Barnet in north London when the offences happened between 3rd and 10th December 2024. He resigned in April 2025 without explanation.
Velleman, of Finchley, north London, used the handle “Tim Graham 95” to send the messages, Highbury Corner Magistrates’ Court heard. Unbeknownst to him, he was actually in contact with a decoy officer from the Metropolitan Police.
The prosecutor asked for the case to be committed to the Crown Court for sentencing as he said it was too serious to be dealt with at the magistrates’ court.
Prosecutor Zahid Hussain told the court on Tuesday that Velleman sent online messages asking to see the girl in her school uniform, how old she was and if she was at home alone.
He sent a video of his penis and asked to see her in her underwear.
Velleman previously pleaded guilty to two charges, one of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and another of attempting to cause a child aged 13 to 15 to look at an image of sexual activity.
In 2022, a man named Liron Velleman appeared as a witness before a House of Commons Committee scrutinising the Online Safety Bill, where he was described as a “political organiser” for HOPE Not Hate.
The reason I’m bringing this up is because a couple of weeks ago, HOPE Not Hate ran a ‘story’ on its website saying my “association with Epstein’s circle” needed to be “scrutinised” because, as per the latest batch of the Epstein files, I sent two emails to Ghislaine Maxwell, one in 2001, the other in 2002, six years before Epstein pleaded guilty to child sexual offences. This was in spite of the fact that I told the ‘journalist’ writing the piece – Patrik Hermansson – that I’d never met Epstein, never spoken to him, never emailed him, never traded messages with him, never been to any of his homes, never been on the Lolita Express, never been to Paedo Island, etc, etc. Nevertheless, according to HOPE Not Hate, the fact that I’d emailed his ex-girlfriend twice, 25 and 24 years ago, meant I now needed to be investigated.
According to the pro-censorship lobby group’s own logic, shouldn’t all its employees and volunteers, who have a much closer link to this convicted sex offender than I ever did with Epstein, now be investigated?
According to a recent screenshot from HOPE Not Hate’s website – which seems to think it’s a news publishing site, describing the director of HOPE Not Hate, Nick Lowles, as “editor”, Liran Velleman is still a “contributor”, alongside “Patrik Hermansson”. Doesn’t this mean that Hermansson, not to mention Lowles, are in the “circle” of a convicted paedophile? I’m not suggesting they’ve also committed child sexual offences, just that the smear tactics they’ve used against me could just as easily be used to attack them.
The phrase beginning “people in glass houses” springs to mind. It really beggars belief that HOPE Not Hate should run this smear story against me – still prominently displayed on its website – knowing that a member of their “circle” had just pleaded guilty to child sexual offences.
This article was originally published by the Daily Sceptic.
