How Pride in Surrey became a shield for a paedophile

It’s hard to fault the cast-iron cojones of the men running Pride in Surrey (PiS). In June, Its founder and former chief executive, 41-year-old Stephen Ireland, was sentenced to 24 years for raping an ‘extremely vulnerable’ 12-year-old boy he met online. Yet the new leadership pressed on with PiS this year as though nothing had happened, even going so far as to hail the event, which took place last weekend, as ‘spectacular’.

On the day there were, inevitably, a few hiccups. A gay activist known online as ‘Mr Menno’ managed only a few steps toward the parade with his placard, which read ‘Puberty blockers = anti-gay’, before security and police marched him away. (It’s a shame law enforcement wasn’t so quick off the mark with Ireland.) Later, feminist journalist Julie Bindel was escorted from the ticketed afterparty. Her offence was to ask Zöe Franklin, the Liberal Democrat MP in the local seat of Guildford, what had been done at this year’s event to ensure that no one as dangerous as Ireland could be in a position of authority again. Ireland had been able to appoint himself both director and head of safeguarding at PiS – a position that put him in charge of its ‘helpline’ for vulnerable queer children.

PiS’s new chief executive, Charlie Watts, was in a relationship with Ireland before the latter’s conviction. Its current head of safeguarding, Samuel Powell, was described in Ireland’s court case as a ‘pup’ fetishist who used crystal meth with both Ireland and Watts. Nor was Ireland, who founded PiS in 2018, the only member of the organisation involved in sexual crimes. His partner, 27-year-old David Sutton, a volunteer at PiS, was jailed for four-and-a-half years for arranging the commission of a child sexual offence, among other sexual offences.

Ireland was able to operate in plain sight precisely because Pride’s rainbow flag had become a shield. Volunteers raised concerns and councillors sounded the alarm over Ireland, but to no avail. The most egregious example of this occurred in 2021, when Marion Harding, another PiS volunteer, wrote to Surrey council’s chief executive. She specifically addressed Ireland’s public celebration of certain fetishes, his then relationship with a teenager and his position as head of safeguarding. Nothing happened.

Rebecca Paul, the Conservative MP for Reid, also tried to raise the alarm. In 2023, Paul – then a Surrey councillor – approached Surrey Police and her own council with a ‘deeply concerning’ photo of Ireland. It showed him performing ‘pup play’ with a 17-year-old girl, with Ireland holding the lead attached to the girl’s mask. Yet instead of investigating Ireland, council staff blacklisted Paul, who became the subject of an informal complaint. A review of the council’s handling of Ireland has been completed, but in keeping with the lack of accountability that has characterised this appalling scandal, it is being kept under lock and key.

Rather than admit fault or accept accountability, PiS has cast itself as a beleaguered victim of anti-LGBTQ+ bigotry. When Surrey council finally abandoned its support for PiS in July, Watts called the decision part of a ‘troubling trend’. The group’s website went further, denouncing ‘an alarming increase in hateful rhetoric directed not only at our organisation but at LGBTQ+ people more broadly’. In truth, there should be nothing ‘troubling’ about withdrawing taxpayer’s money from an organisation that was led by a child rapist.

It is tempting to dismiss PiS as a local scandal. But it speaks to something larger. Across Britain, politicians and institutions remain so terrified of being branded bigots that safety comes a distant second – even after a case as horrific as Ireland’s. As the treatment of Bindel shows, the whiff of ‘hate’ is still the greatest danger.

Jo Bartosch is co-author of the upcoming book, Pornocracy. Pre-order it here.