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.