Richard Desmond Porn King dines with Cameron

Porn baron Richard Desmond is David Cameron’s guest at Chequers




Richard Desmond, who made his fortune through pornography, attends a dinner
party hosted by David Cameron at his country retreat.















Richard Desmond once goose-stepped around a boardroom and accused all Germans of being Nazis. Photo: Christopher Pledger

















Tim Walker. Edited by Richard Eden



7:30AM BST 15 Oct 2011






David Cameron ordered a judicial
inquiry into the press after the worst details of the phone
hacking scandal came to light, but has he learnt anything from his own
intimate dealings with controversial media figures?



Mandrake hears that the Prime Minister is entertaining Richard Desmond, the
porn baron, at Chequers this weekend.



As well as making his fortune from pornography, Desmond delivered a damaging
blow to the self-regulation of Fleet Street by withdrawing his four national
newspapers from the press watchdog, the PCC.



The tycoon, who once goose-stepped around a boardroom and accused all Germans
of being Nazis during a meeting with executives of The Daily Telegraph,
was criticised at the Leveson inquiry.



“Let’s not forget that it was the political class in the form of the Blair
Government which decided that Richard Desmond was a fit and proper person to
own a newspaper,” said Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail.

• 
  t known whether Desmond, who still owns pornographic television
  channels, will feature the dinner at the PM’s grace-and-favour country
  residence in his OK! magazine. It is being held for the charity
  Mencap.
  

His invitation comes four days after Cameron announced a raft of measures to
block access to porn on the internet.


Last year, the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom decided that Desmond was a “fit and
proper” person to take over Channel 5.


In 2009, his company was fined £27,500 for airing pornography which was too
explicit for television. Another of his firms was fined £25,000 after its
Red Hot services promoted websites leading to hardcore adult material which
could be viewed without the need for age verification.























Daily Telegraph 15/11