Prominent LGBT activist sentenced to over 20 years in jail for child abuse

An LGBT activist who scorned those who uphold the reality of biological sex has been sentenced to 24 years in prison for child sex abuse.

Stephen Ireland, who founded Surrey Pride and was part of the UK Pride Organisers’ Network, branded JK Rowling a “TERF”, and claimed Christian fast-food chain Chick-Fil-A should not be allowed to operate in the UK because it works “against the values of our amazing country”.

Ireland was found guilty of abusing a 12-year-old boy, taking methamphetamine with him, and watching pornography. His former same-sex partner David Sutton, who committed more crimes with him, was sentenced to over four years in prison.

Vulnerable

Judge Patricia Lees told Guildford Crown Court that Ireland found it “exciting” instead of “repugnant” to take advantage of the 12-year-old boy referred to as ‘A’.

“Stephen Ireland is a man who prided himself on being versed in and highly alive to the vulnerabilities of young people linked to the Surrey Pride organisation he was at the time pivotal to. ‘A’ was quite obviously to any adult an extremely vulnerable child who was highly sexualised.

“Any responsible adult would have quickly appreciated that there was a high likelihood ‘A’ is a young man who had been the subject of sexual grooming by adult men at a very early age and been concerned for him instead of taking advantage of him.”

LGBT Youth Scotland

Last year, LGBT Youth Scotland came under fire after a co-author of one of its guides for gender-confused children was convicted of child sex offences.

Andrew Easton contributed to a 2010 “coming out” guide for pupils as young as 13. It claimed: “Transgender people are people whose gender identity – who they are internally or their ‘innate’ gender – is different to their physical body or the gender they were assigned at birth.”

Following Easton’s conviction, Scottish Conservative MSP Meghan Gallacher said: “This is a deeply disturbing situation. It is long overdue that we audit just how much public money this organisation receives and seek assurances over what safeguarding assessments are in place.”