A PRIDE group founder who raped a 12-year-old boy he met on the Grindr dating app has been locked up alongside his partner.
Stephen Ireland, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018, raped an “extremely vulnerable” boy and has been jailed for 24 years.
Stephen Ireland, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018[/caption]
Ireland told the boy they would have to keep his age a “secret” and found his young age “exciting”, the court heard[/caption]
The 42-year-old raped the child at a flat he shared with his then-partner and co-defendant David Sutton, 27, in Addlestone on April 19 2024.
The court heard Ireland had arranged for the 12-year-old boy, referred to in court as Child A, to meet him at his flat after messaging on dating app Grindr.
Ireland told the boy they would have to keep his age a “secret” and found his young age “exciting”, the court heard.
The boy, who had been reported missing at the time, told police they had sex in the flat, smoked a bong which was later found to have contained methamphetamine, and that pornography was played on a laptop.
Judge Patricia Lees, sentencing at Guildford Crown Court on Monday, told the hearing Ireland “took advantage” of a vulnerable child.
She said: “Stephen Ireland is a man who prided himself on being versed in and highly alive to the vulnerabilities of young people linked to the Surrey Pride organisation he was at the time pivotal to.
“A was quite obviously to any adult an extremely vulnerable child who was highly sexualised.
“Any responsible adult would have quickly appreciated that there was a high likelihood A is a young man who had been the subject of sexual grooming by adult men at a very early age and been concerned for him instead of taking advantage of him.”
The court heard the boy had initially told Ireland he was aged 17 – but when he later claimed to be aged 13, Ireland replied: “OK – we just have to keep it a secret.”
“Your response was telling,” Judge Lees told Ireland, who sat in the dock dressed in a large red T-shirt and showed no emotions throughout the hearing.
“Far from finding that repugnant, you found that exciting, and sought to do it again.”
In a Telegram chat that took place after their encounter, Ireland sent Child A a message in which he described his age as “naughty and kinky”, the court heard.
On the same day, Ireland asked the boy if he would have a threesome and sent the child pictures of himself and Sutton.
Jurors heard that Ireland sent a picture of Child A to Sutton, describing him as a “14-year-old baby” who “wants to play with men’s bodies”, and the pair exchanged messages about the child.
Ireland and Sutton, who was a volunteer for Surrey Pride, were found guilty of a string of sexual offences against children.
These included voyeurism, arranging commission of a child sex offence, and possession of prohibited images of children, after a trial at Guildford Crown Court earlier this year.
In August 2022, Ireland and Sutton discussed arrangements to procure a 13-year-old boy for Sutton’s 25th birthday in October of that year, the court heard.
Both men were also sentenced on one count each of voyeurism after Ireland watched live camera footage of Sutton having sex with another 16-year-old boy at their flat in March 2024.
The teenager did not know he was being recorded, with Ireland sending Sutton messages such as “he doesn’t know I’m here” and telling him what to do, the court heard.
“You fed off one another,” Judge Lees told the defendants during the sentence hearing on Monday.
“You definitely supported one another in your perversions.”
Ireland and Sutton also perverted the course of justice by intentionally deleting material and search history from their phones after they were released on police bail in June 2024.
Ireland was sentenced to 24 years’ imprisonment, with a further six on extended licence.
He was found guilty of one count of rape, three counts of causing a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity, sexual assault, conspiracy to engage in sexual activity with a child, arranging commission of a child sex offence, six counts of making indecent photographs of children, four counts of distributing indecent photographs of children, possession of prohibited images, and possession of an extreme pornographic image.
Sutton was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in jail for offences including voyeurism, possession and distribution of prohibited images of children, and perverting the course of justice.
Ireland’s defence lawyer Alex Kirkler told the court his client did not abuse his position within the Surrey Pride organisation to commit these offences.
The 42-year-old raped the child at a flat[/caption]
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