Chris Denning - Convictions

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 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 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.

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".

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.