Former BBC Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning pleads guilty to 21 child sex offences

Former BBC DJ Chris Denning has pleaded guilty to 21 child sex offences committed between 1969 and 1986.

The 75-year-old, who rose to prominence as on of the original presenters on BBC Radio 1 when it launched in 1967, admitted the abuse of 11 boys as young as eight, denying three other offences.

Denning, who has spent four decades in and out of prison for a series of sexual offences after first being convicted in 1974, was arrested in a police inquiry into the Walton Hop Disco for teenagers in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey and will be sentenced on 6 October.

There is no intention to proceed with a trial on the three charges to which Denning had pleaded not guilty, said the prosecution.

He is currently serving a 13-year jail term for sexual assaults against 24 victims aged nine to 16 from the 1960s to 1980s.

He will be sentenced at Southwark Crown Court by the same judge who jailed him for those offences in 2014.

Four of Denning’s victims were in court to see him plead guilty.

Detective Chief Inspector Jo Hayes said: “Denning, who was looked up to and sometimes idolised by many young people, has used his status to prey on innocent children which he has now admitted to.

“The four boys who Denning abused had moved on with their lives and were now adult men with families and careers. Often, they had not spoken to those closest to them about their ordeal as a child and only recently, as part of this investigation, have been able to do so.

“We can never go back and take away the abuse these four men suffered as boys but I hope, in some way, today’s guilty plea brings some closure for them.”

Words: Bryan Bernal

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