Charles Napier's prolific child abusing raises questions about society and the British state

In 2014 it is difficult to imagine that the Paedophile Information Exchange ever existed.

Even more astonishing are the currently unsubstantiated claims that the shadowy group - which had openly campaigned to legalise sex between adults and children - had not only received funding from the state, but enjoyed links with people at the top level of government.

Charles Napier was its treasurer - a popular teacher and prolific paedophile who had used beer and cigarettes to groom the pupils that he wanted to attack.

Today he was sentenced to 13 years in jail for attacks against 23 boys.

Napier was responsible for "well in excess of one hundred indecent assaults", Southwark Crown Court heard today.

He even bragged about his attacks in a series of letters that he sent to pen pal paedophiles, some of which have been seen by ITV News.

But despite talk of "closure" at court today, there are enduring and unanswered questions:

• Why has it taken so long for Napier to have been brought to justice? It is 17 years since the ITV journalist Roger Cook handed a senior police officer a list of alleged child abusers, including Napier, during a film for ‘The Cook Report’.

• Secondly, what links, if any, did Napier's Paedophile Information Exchange have to government and people working in it?

Investigations into claims of child abusers working close to the heart of government continue.

The Napier case provides yet another window into a dark period of our recent past in relation to child protection.

It raises questions not only about the attitudes of British society, but the British state too.