Chris Denning

Christopher David Denning was born in Hayes, Middlesex on 10 May 1941. He has said that he was a rent boy from the age of 13{{cite web ==Radio career==

His first radio experience was on a short-wave station in the United States as a teenager before travelling to Kenya to work on British Forces Network. He then returned to the UK in time to become the first announcer heard on BBC2 when it began broadcasting in 1964. He worked for Radio Luxembourg and Radio London before presenting the Saturday afternoon programme ''Where It's At'' with Kenny Everett (produced by Johnny Beerling) on the BBC Light Programme. He then became one of the original DJs on BBC Radio 1, where he continued presenting ''Where It's At'', had his own weekly show and deputised as necessary for Tony Blackburn on the latter's breakfast show. Denning was gay, and has said that he was 'out' when he was working at Radio 1. ==Legal history==

In 1959, Denning was jailed in Germany for distributing pornographic images. Denning's first conviction for gross indecency and indecent assault was in 1974 when he was convicted at the Old Bailey, although he was not imprisoned. called the Walton Hop. Other participants included Tam Paton, manager of the Bay City Rollers (convicted of child sex offences in 1982), and Jonathan King. All became suspects in Surrey Police's Operation Arundel, an investigation focusing on sex offenders, which ultimately led to convictions against King and Denning. In 1985, he was imprisoned for 18 months for gross indecency with a child, In 2008, he was extradited from Britain to Slovakia, where he was jailed in October for five years for producing child pornography. He was re-arrested and bailed out in September of that year. The allegations made against Denning were not part of those relating to Jimmy Savile. In May 2014, as a result of the investigation, he was charged with 41 sex offences. In August 2014, Denning admitted to 29 of the charges in relation to the offences committed against boys. In November at Southwark Crown Court, he pleaded guilty to a further eleven charges. In all, he pleaded guilty to 40 sexual offences committed in the period 1967 to 1987 relating to 26 male victims, the youngest of whom was 9 at the time of the offence. In December 2014, Judge Alistair McCreath sentenced him to 13 years in prison. Denning was charged with six offences stemming from the Operation Ravine investigation on 7 June 2016. On 22 August 2016, Denning pleaded guilty to 21 sex offences between 1969 and 1986, against 11 boys, the youngest of whom was 8. At Southwark Crown Court on 7 October 2016, Judge Alistair McCreath sentenced Denning to another 13 years in prison for these additional offences, running from the day of the court hearing. On 7 December 2017, Denning pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault and one of taking indecent photos of a child between March 1979 and March 1981. His trial was due to start on 11 June 2018, but the charges were dropped on 13 June. ==Death==

Denning died while in prison custody in Bedford Hospital on 24 June 2022, as a result of a bone infection caused by diabetes. He was 81 years old. His death was not reported publicly until October 2023. The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which investigates deaths in prison custody, found that "when clinical readings first showed that Mr Denning needed emergency care, he was not transferred to hospital for treatment". ==References==