UK: Pride Group Founder and Trans Activist Found GUILTY of Raping 12 Year-Old Boy

A prominent LGBT activist who provided diversity training to local police has been found guilty of raping a 12 year-old boy he met on Grindr. Stephen Ireland, 41, co-founder of Pride in Surrey, was convicted of raping the child in the Addlestone flat he shared with his partner David Sutton, 27, in April 2024.

On August 14, 2024, Ireland and Sutton were both arrested and jointly charged with 15 offenses, including conspiracy to kidnap a child and conspiracy to sexually assault a child.

Ireland was separately charged with an additional 22 offenses, including the rape of a child, the sexual assault of a child, and six counts of making indecent photographs of children under the age of 13. Sutton was charged with an additional 7 similarly serious offenses.

The Guilford Crown Court heard that Ireland targeted the boy on the gay hookup app and invited him to his home. He then showed pornography to the child before raping the boy. Ireland and Sutton admitted to possession of prohibited images of children while Ireland also admitted possessing an extreme pornographic image.

In a statement, Detective Chief Superintendent Debbie White, Head of Surrey Police’s Public Protection Team, said: “Stephen Ireland was a sexual predator who targeted a young boy and took advantage of his age and vulnerability for his own gratification. I would like to pay tribute to the victim in this case for their courage in coming forward and for giving evidence. I hope the guilty verdicts help them start to re-build their life.”

White continued: “Both men have demonstrated an extreme sexual interest in children and the fact that the jury has found them both guilty of multiple sexual offences today means that they will no longer pose that risk. Both men then tried to cover up their offending by intentionally deleting material from their phones once they became aware of the police investigation and following their arrests.”

Following Ireland’s establishment of Pride in Surrey in 2018, the organization was responsible for arranging the annual Pride festivities, which included activities for children and youth. As a result of his activism, Ireland garnered the support of Surrey Police, who regularly attended events he organized in cars outfitted with rainbow decals.

On June 6, shortly before Ireland was arrested on numerous child sexual abuse charges, Surrey Police visited local school Woking High with his organization to take part in “Pride engagement” work. The force would have already been aware of the charges prepared to be pressed against Ireland at this time.

Evidence presented during trial argued that the men were targeting children for their sexual proclivities” between 2022 and 2024. WhatsApp messages from 2022 showed the pair discussing “snatching” or “kidnapping” a schoolchild, Prosecutor Isabel Delamere revealed.

Other messages involved discussion of preying on children outside of school gates while pretending to be a talent coach or music manager, reported The Telegraph.

In one message, Ireland allegedly described himself as “a f—— up sick pedo perv.” Similarly, Sutton spoke of having a 14-year-old making sexual advances towards him. One message from Ireland read, “All I’m thinking of is making out with a 13”, while in another he said to Sutton “Every day passes and I wanna do something terrible with you.”

According to Prosecutor Delamere, in August 2022 the pair also made plans to procure a 13 year-old boy for Sutton to abuse for his 25th birthday, which would take place in October. When Sutton’s birthday drew closer, he and Ireland discussed picking up a teenage boy and possibly his younger sister, aged eight or nine, to rape at the flat they shared together.

However, Ireland and Sutton were acquitted of conspiring to kidnap a child, Sutton was cleared of six counts of conspiring to sexually assault a child. Sutton also pleaded guilty to two counts of distributing indecent photographs of a child.

The trial was attended by representatives of local women’s rights group Women in Surrey. From their account on X, they shared what they had heard in court within hours of the verdict being delivered. Arguments and evidence presented during proceedings for which the pair were not convicted depict a a disturbing network of predatory men involved with or adjacent to Pride in Surrey who still have access to children in their roles.

“During the trial we learnt that Ireland was previously married to a man who went on to identify as a woman. Ireland told the court that as a gay man he found this ‘difficult’ as he is ‘not attracted to women,” Women in Surrey wrote.

“In an effort to keep the marriage alive, Ireland and his husband introduced a third person into their relationship: Charlie Watts. Watts and Ireland went on to set up Pride in Surrey. Watts remains the current CEO.”

Court attendees from Women in Surrey went on to explain that while Ireland and Watts’ relationship developed, Ireland’s unnamed husband began another relationship of his own. Then, in 2020, university student Sam Powell became involved with Watts and Ireland, and he quickly became the Volunteer Manager at Pride in Surrey, and remains in the position to this date.

Additionally, Women in Surrey volunteers explained that the court was told how both Ireland and Sutton referred to themselves as “pedos” who fantasize about “pump[ing] children full of estrogen” and “get[ting] their vocal cords snipped.” In one message, Ireland, who is HIV positive, stated about a child, “If we breed him now, he’ll be [HIV positive] in 6-8 weeks.”

Ireland also declared in court that Sam Powell was into a BDSM fetish known as “pup play,” typically associated with the gay male community. The fetish involves elements of dominance and subordination, with one or more individuals roleplaying as dogs for the pleasure of a dominant “master.”

Last August, Reduxx revealed a social media trail that demonstrated how Ireland groomed a teen girl into transgenderism and “pup play” through Pride in Surrey. Ireland began interacting with the girl online when she was as young as 16 years old and assisted her to transition into a “boy” and “leatherpup.”

Their interactions were conducted through both his personal account and his Pride in Surrey account. The two referred to each other as “bro,” and exchanged jokes about urine fetishism. Their earliest interactions date to 2018, when Julie was just 16. At that time she had begun counting down the days until the first Pride in Surrey event.

As previously reported by Reduxx, prior to his charges, Ireland was an influential and respected figure within the LGBT community. As the founder of a Pride group in Surrey, he was responsible for organizing the annual local Pride festival. His work put him in close contact with regional police, who repeatedly recommended that people follow his group from their official social media accounts.

Ireland was invited to speak by the police multiple times, including at a training day for their LGBT task force. In 2021, Ireland was invited to speak at an LGBT History Month Seminar hosted by Surrey Police. In February of 2024, Pride in Surrey also shortlisted Surrey Police for a Community Champion Award. The page listing the event has since been scrubbed, but was viewed by Reduxx prior to its deletion.

Pride in Surrey also received substantial public funds. According to information provided by the Surrey County Council following a Freedom of Information request, nearly £100,000 were allotted to the LGBT activist group between 2020 – 2022.

Meanwhile, in the time leading up to and during the grooming and sexual abuse of minors for which Ireland and Sutton have been found guilty, Ireland was using his social media account to condemn critics of gender identity ideology.

Ireland reserved a particular disdain for “TERFs,” a derogatory term used most often to refer to women critical of gender ideology. The acronym stands for “trans exclusionary radical feminist,” but is largely aimed at any woman who disagrees with the medical transitioning of children or accomodating trans-identified males in women’s spaces.

On several occasions, Ireland shared his thoughts about “TERFs,” and in June 2020, he took aim at beloved author J. K. Rowling.

“This is not HATE, this is FACT! JK Rowling has clearly expressed a view that is Transphobic, Intersexist and inconsiderate of the LGBTQ+ community who stand together in solidarity. SHAME ON YOU!” Ireland posted.

That same month, Ireland advocated for controversial gender self-identity policies, saying, “Please ALLOW Self ID, let those who want to be themselves, be! I won’t be sitting on my hands watching as you implement yet another step backwards for rights of those who are part of the community I hold dear.”

“Calling all MP’s who oppose this TERF bullshit, calling all celebrities who stand with us. We need you now, more than ever to be a voice and get people talking, we need you to stand strong and ensure the harm these proposed changes will have is known,” he added.

The convicted child rapist also responded to Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend on X, saying, “Trans Women are Women and therefor the same sex. Please stop your anti-trans and quite exclusionary rhetoric. It’s not achieving anything other than upsetting our Trans siblings who deserve the love and respect any other person deserves. You are NOT the voice of the majority.”

Disturbingly, after founding Pride in Surrey, Ireland had been actively leading Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) seminars, and was a patron of the trans activist charity Educate and Celebrate.

The charity, founded by Dr. Elly Barnes, a teacher who received an MBE for her contribution to equality and diversity in education, sought to “embed gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into the fabric” of societal institutions.

To promote this goal, Educate and Celebrate created lesson plans and resources regarding gender identity for public schools aimed at children and teenagers.

The organization ran a PRIDE Youth Network program targeted at children aged 11 – 18 years old, and encouraged youth to “campaign for social justice in their schools” while providing “a particular focus on gender identity and sexual orientation.”

Ireland was a patron of Educate and Celebrate alongside leading LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, with whom Ireland has attended events and has praised as an “inspiration.” Tatchell has been widely regarded as a pedophile sympathizer by many, and, as previously reported by Reduxx, Tatchell has an unsettling history of downplaying the harms of child sexual abuse.

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