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		</div><p><a href="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/mps-opponent-guilty-of-paedo-smear.jpg"><img class="alignnone size-full" title="Les Cummings has been found guilty of attempting to affect a result in last year's general election" src="http://londonglossy.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/min-mps-opponent-guilty-of-paedo-smear.jpg" alt="Les Cummings has been found guilty of attempting to affect a result in last year's general election"/></a></p>
<p>A political opponent who falsely claimed in a leaflet that MP Mike Hancock is a paedophile has been found guilty of attempting to affect a result in last year&#8217;s general election.</p>
<p>Liberal Democrat Mr Hancock, who represents the Portsmouth South seat, strenuously denied ever having sexual relations with any children under the age of 17 in the UK or abroad during the three-day trial at Southampton Magistrates&#8217; Court.</p>
<p>He said he was &#8220;absolutely not&#8221; a paedophile and the suggestion by Les Cummings, 66, that he was had &#8220;sickened&#8221; him.</p>
<p>Cummings, from Portsmouth, who was standing against Mr Hancock for the Justice and Anti-Corruption Party in the seat, falsely wrote on the A4 sheet: &#8220;Mike Hancock is a paedophile.&#8221;</p>
<p>It then showed a picture of Mr Hancock with children and the words: &#8220;Would you let him get this close to your children?&#8221;</p>
<p>Cummings alleged in the leaflet that was delivered to homes in Portsmouth that Mr Hancock had an affair with a 14-year-old girl &#8211; called Miss A in court &#8211; during the 1980s, had been seen in bed with children while on charity work in Romania, and was corrupt and associated with known criminals.</p>
<p>Mr Hancock denied in court all the allegations printed in the leaflet.</p>
<p>But he did admit he had a &#8220;close and affectionate relationship&#8221; with Miss A, whom he first met in her late teens in 1985, and it gradually developed until she married in about 1993. He said the relationship had involved a &#8220;kiss and a cuddle&#8221; but was &#8220;not sexual&#8221;.</p>
<p>The prosecution said that Cummings held a grudge against Mr Hancock because he was also a councillor and Portsmouth City Council had failed to apologise for sexual abuse Cummings suffered as a child while in care in the city.</p>
<p>He said he had become &#8220;obsessed&#8221; with the MP and the leaflet was a &#8220;vendetta&#8221; and a &#8220;smear campaign&#8221; to discredit Mr Hancock and stop him being re-elected.</p>
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