Chris Denning

Chris Denning (born 10 May 1941 in Hayes, Middlesex) is an English disc jockey. His career was effectively over when he was revealed as a paedophile, and he has spent three decades in and out of prison in Britain and Eastern Europe. He is currently serving a five-year term in a Slovakian prison for child sex offences.

Radio career

Denning's first radio experience was on a short-wave station in the US as a teenager, and then on to Radio Moscow before travelling to Kenya to work on British Forces Network there with Keith Skues. He then returned to the UK in time to become the first announcer heard on the new BBC Television service BBC Two. 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's Light Programme.^[1][2] He then became one of the original DJs on BBC Radio 1,^[3] where he continued presenting Where It's At, had his own weekly show and deputised as necessary for Tony Blackburn on his breakfast show.^[4][5] He has also narrated a number of driver's eye view videos for Video 125.

Convictions

Denning's first conviction for gross indecency and indecent assault was in 1974, when he was convicted at the Old Bailey. In 1985 he was imprisoned for 18 months for gross indecency with a child, and again in 1988 when he was jailed for three years for indecent assault on a 13 year old boy and possession of indecent photographs. In March 1996 he was imprisoned again for 10 weeks for publishing indecent photographs.

Denning was part of a group of child sex offenders based around a disco for young people in Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Other well-known participants included Tam Paton, manager of the Bay City Rollers, and Jonathan King. All became targets of Surrey Police's Operation Arundel that focused on sex offenders based at the Walton Hop, which ultimately led to convictions against King and Denning (who was extradited from the Czech Republic to face charges), and at least one other man.^[6][7] In a 2001 interview while held in Pankrac prison, Denning complained that Jonathan King had not spoken to him since firing him in 1974 from the record company they ran (UK Records) saying 'He sacked me when I got into trouble for the very same thing that he is accused of. We haven't been friends since. I was dismayed that he sacked me but I was more dismayed that he abandoned me as a friend'.^[8]

In 2008 he was extradited back out of Britain (where he had served two years of a further four year sentence) and jailed in October for five years by a court in Slovakia, where he had been living prior to his extradition to Britain, on charges of producing child pornography.^[9][10]

References

1. ^ Where It's At previews Sgt Pepper on 20 May 1967
2. ^ Kenny Everett interviews the Beatles for Where It's At in May 1967
3. ^ Radio 1 Original Presenter List as published 4 September 1967
4. ^ One-Der-Boys: 15 Chris Denning, Independent, 27 September 1992
5. ^ Pirate Radio Hall of Fame
6. ^ [1] Independent, 17 January 2003
7. ^ Ronson, Jon, The fall of a pop impresario, The Guardian, 1 December 2001.
8. ^ Paedophile DJ escapes extradition to Britain
9. ^ Shamed Radio 1 DJ jailed in Slovakia over child porn Daily Mail, 9 October 2008
10. ^ [2] Guardian, 4 May 1999

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Name	Denning, Chris
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Date of birth	10 May 1941
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