John Stamford

John D. Stamford

John D. Stamford was an activist and the founder of Spartacus gay guide,based in Amsterdam.

According to Burton who was one of the pioneers of gay journalism in the UK, and who in the late 1960s began to write for Spartacus, now known as an international gay guide but then a magazine run from a guesthouse in Brighton:

"When John D Stamford founded Spartacus there was no gay press and although there were plenty of gay journalists, there was no gay journalism," said Peter in a recent interview with his friend Torsten Højer. "Those of us who were involved from the very beginning had to find our material and learn to write about it in a style our readers would not have previously encountered."

In the early 1980s, Coltsfoot Press was bought and re-activated by Spartacus, and published a number of BoyLover books.

John Stamford also published Pan: A Magazine about Boy-Love, active from 1979 to 1985.

He died awaiting trumped-up charges brought against him by an anti-pedo organization.

His death notice in The Guardian, 30th December 1995:

'Child sex case minister dies'

A BRITON accused of publishing international guides for child molesters has died before standing trial in Belgium, according to sources involved in the case.

John Stamford, 56, a former church minister, was scheduled to answer charges brought by children's rights groups alleging he provided information on child prostitutes to pedophiles around the world.

It is believed that he died on Wednesday of a heart attack in hospital near his home in northern Belgium.

"His death will probably mean the end of all judicial action," said Bernard Boeton, an official of Terre des Hommes (Land of Mankind), one of the organizations pressing charges. "We regret it because we wanted to make an example of him."

Last April a local court in the small northern town of Turnhout ruled it was not competent to judge Stamford. It said he should face a jury at a higher court on charges of offending public morals and publicising sexual exploitation. According to the prosecution, Stamford used a homosexual travel guide called Spartacus as a front for a mailing service offering information on child prostitution in Thailand, Brazil, the Philippines and other nations.

Stamford had denied the child sex charges and claimed to be the victim of an anti-homosexual campaign.

He was hounded to death for being an active BoyLover, and he is sorely to be missed. He worked very hard for the BoyLove cause. PAN magazine has many article detailing the problems with the BoyLover-persecuting Terre des Hommes organization.

Pan: A Magazine about Boy-Love has a link to a site where you can view/search all issues of the magazine - you can read about the activities (and the hypocrisy) of Terre des Hommes.