Nigel Wrench

Nigel Wrench (born 1960) is an English radio presenter, mainly for BBC Radio 4.

Born in Birmingham, Wrench grew up in South Africa, where he began his career in journalism reporting on the anti-apartheid protests of the 1980s. He joined the BBC as a reporter, and was at the prison gates when Nelson Mandela walked free. Wrench then became a roving reporter for the BBC, from locations including Jerusalem, St Petersburg and Bucharest.

Wrench returned to London in 2000, reporting for the Today programme and hosting his own weekly Out This Week, a gay and lesbian weekly news programme on BBC Radio 5 Live for which he won a Sony Radio Award. He won a New York Radio Award for his Radio 4 documentary Aids and Me, and also presents the Radio 4 programme PM. He most often works as arts reporter for PM.

Wrench is openly gay and publicly announced his status as HIV-positive in 1994. In an article in the Pink Paper and an interview in The Guardian, he defended "barebacking" (anal sex without a condom) under some circumstances.

In May 2007 he was charged with the alleged rape of another man. He denied all charges. His trial commenced at the Old Bailey in February 2008. It was alleged by the prosecution that Wrench, at his home in Finsbury Park, London drugged and raped a 26 year old man whom he had met earlier at a party in Kennington. The alleged victim was also HIV positive.

Nigel Wrench denied a charge of rape, saying he had consensual sex with the man in January 2007. He told the court he took cocaine with the 27-year-old before they returned to Mr Wrench's flat. His defence had urged the jury to ignore any feelings of repugnance. On 8 February 2008 the jury found him not guilty of rape, after deliberating for two-and-a-half hours. It had already cleared him of sexual assault and of supplying the drug Temazepam with intention to engage in sexual activity, after the judge ruled that there was insufficient evidence on those charges to support a conviction.

Wrench has since returned to work with the BBC.