Founder of Pride in Surrey and former charity volunteer remanded in custody at magistrates court

Fiona Parker
17 August 2024 • 2:43pm

LGBTQ, Pride, Channel 4, Ofcom

Stephen Ireland, founder of Surrey Pride Credit: FACEBOOK

The patron of a defunct LGBT charity, which encouraged children to question the gender binary, has been charged with multiple counts of child sex abuse.

Stephen Ireland, 40, is facing a total of 37 charges, including rape of a child under 13, six counts of making indecent photographs of children and two counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

For 15 of the alleged offences, the founder of Pride in Surrey was jointly charged alongside David Sutton, 26.

Ireland was listed as a director for Pride in Surrey until June of this year, while Sutton was a former volunteer for the charity, according to Mail Online.

Sutton, who, like Ireland, is from Addlestone, Surrey, was also charged with a further seven further offences, including three counts of making indecent photographs of children.

The multiple offences, which the pair were formally charged with at Staines Magistrates’ Court on Thursday, date from August 2022 to last month.

They were both remanded in custody to appear at Guildford Crown Court on September 12.

Stephen Ireland faces 37 charges including child rape Credit: FACEBOOK

One of Ireland’s social media accounts describes him as a patron of charity Educate and Celebrate, which claimed to equip and empower “school communities to tackle and reduce homophobia, biphobia and transphobia”.

The charity ran Pride workshops for primary and secondary school pupils, which included “How to break the binary and be gender inclusive”, according to its former website.

However, the organisation, which shut down earlier this year, came under fire for a number of controversies before its closure.

In 2022 trans woman Jordan Gray, a patron of the charity, prompted nearly 1,500 Ofcom complaints when the performer stripped-off during a live Channel 4 show before appearing to play a piano with their penis.

The comedian had previously described going into schools to “talk about gender” on behalf of Educate and Celebrate, adding that “toddlers kind of get it straight away”.

However, the defunct charity removed the performer as a patron following the skit and went on to say in a statement that Gray had “never gone into schools” on its behalf nor had been asked to carry out work for the organisation.

Dr Elly Barnes, the charity’s founder, had previously advised teachers that it is permissible not to tell parents if a pupil declares themselves to be transgender and also said that terms such as “boys”, “girls”, “son” and “mother” should be replaced with the gender-neutral words “pupils”, “students”, “child” and “parent”.

Last year, Educate & Celebrate was asked to remove references to Ofsted on its website following a demand to do so from the school inspectorate.

The charity had been listed as an Ofsted-recognised “best practice” programme on multiple primary school websites.

However, a spokesperson for the watchdog confirmed it did not not endorse any resource providers.

Appalled and horrified at charges

The charity formally asked to shut itself down in January this year and went on to lose its status as a registered charity.

There is no suggestion its closure was related to the charges faced by Ireland.

Its chair of trustees told the Mail Online that she and her colleagues would continue their “much-needed work through new projects”.

A spokesperson for Pride in Surrey told news site Surrey Live: ‘[We] have been made aware of an investigation that has been conducted by Surrey Police involving two former volunteers, both of whom have now been charged.”

The representative added that they were informed by police of an ongoing investigation surrounding two volunteers on June 12 and went on to remove both from the organisation, as well as Ireland as a director.

However, the spokesperson said Pride in Surrey was only made aware of the exact nature of the charges via a social media post on Thursday.

The spokesperson added: “We are appalled and horrified at the charges which have been brought against the two individuals.

’We will fully cooperate with Surrey Police in any way they require. Our thoughts are with the alleged victims and their families.”

The Telegraph has contacted Pride in Surrey separately for a response.