The founder of a Pride group who raped an ‘extremely vulnerable’ boy who he met on Grindr has been jailed for 24 years.
Stephen Ireland, 42, who co-founded Pride in Surrey in 2018, raped the child at the flat he shared with his then partner and co-defendant David Sutton, 27, in Addlestone on April 19, 2024.
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, the court heard.
The boy, who had been reported missing at the time, told police they had sex in the flat.
The boy said they also 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.
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 along with Sutton, who was a volunteer for Surrey Pride, were found guilty of a string of sexual offences against children including 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.
Hellbound and Down 