Singer Danny Tetley sentenced to 9 years for child sex offences

An NSPCC spokesman said: “Tetley’s use of his TV appearances and promises of money in the thousands of messages he sent these boys, are an example of the depraved lengths that predators will go to in their pursuit of victims.

“This kind of abuse can have a profound and long-lasting impact, and this case underlines why it is so vital that social media companies are forced to make safeguarding our children their top priority. We continue to call on the Government to introduce new legislation that enforces a formal Duty of Care to keep young people safe online.

“As part of the NSPCC’s Wild West Web campaign, we are calling on people to email their MP urging them to back a new Bill that paves the way for a proper independent watchdog to regulate online harms against children.” Visit www.nspcc.org.uk/what-you-can-do

Children can contact Childline 24/7 on 0800 1111. Adults concerned about the wellbeing of a child can phone the NSPCC Helpline on 0808 8005000.

For clarity, the jail term is nine years, which forms part of a 17-year extended sentence, meaning Tetley will be closely-monitored on licence for eight years after being released from the nine-year jail term.

Tetley showed no emotion as he was taken away from court

Judge: That means the total sentence upon you is 9 years, extended by 8 years, or an extended sentence of 17 years and you will not be released until its appropriate

Judge: Charge concerning 15-year-old boy: This was a young man targeted by you (Tetley). What you did to him was only your fault. An overlap and I take in that case the starting point as six years for which you get full credit, to four years. That sentence will get consecutive to 5 years sentence

Judge: The first indictment, I take in count 1 and 4 the sentencing point as 6 years and 8 years. 4 years count one, 5 years count 2. These are four years and five years. I am satisfied beyond a remote doubt you are dangerous. I extend order by eight years

Judge: The way to deal with case, is to apply the guidelines. Count 1 – 18 months in prison, count 2 – 18 months in prison, counts 18 months for totality and credit is 2 years. These are concurrent to other sentences to which I turn

Judge: What I have to make clear there needs to be some allowance as some of the young men saw it as a way of making money. Some were less groomed. Some put pressure on you (Tetley) to keep the money flowing. But you started, you caused it, you’re the culprit, not them

Judge: Unseemly detail in this case.

Judge: A large number of images. Some of those you groomed, this is a grooming case par excellence. Some of groomers seduced by money entered more into spirtit. Grooming was in heart of case, children’s ages; 14, 15 and 16. I acknowledge fantasy played its part. What you demanded and showed were blatant and the disgusting level to which you sank, Mr Tetley, was quite unbelievable

Judge: The enormity of your offending was set out. There were meetings but none that truly worry me.

Judge: I assess him as a highly predatory and manipulative individual

Judge: Many will see you for what you are, a despicable creature. In your letter to me you acknowledge your disgraceful behaviour. Tetley has shown manipulative behaviour, sexualising victims, exposing them to images.

Judge: Those in the public eye don’t have licence to abuse. Those in public eye have deep responsibility and many exercise magnificently

Judge: The reality is our society is deeply interested in celebrity, it does no harm. Pure entertainment of highest order including X Factor, upon which you featured in some capacity. You exploited the status it gave you. You abused that status to satisfy your perverted sexual needs, by your actions

Judge: You want to know the outcome of the overall sentence

Judge: The press are here in force for the extent of gravity of the case, the number of child victims. Your celebrity is now gone, tarnished and destroyed.

Judge: This has been most distressing for victims

Judge: Nobody doubts a significant sentence of imprisonment is required

Judge: In determining sentence, guidelines have to be followed, of causing sexual exploitation of children

Judge: I have read the victim impact material entirely

Judge: I have read everything in this case and that material which has taken hours to prepare and for me to read

Judge: I have to deal with sexual harm prevention order which I make in this case which will last for 20 years

Judge: Sexual exploitation of child; 14, 15, 16 years over several months. There are distributed images

Judge: Full one third credit, I would deploy that. In this case I have to deal with exceedingly challenging sentencing exercise, a challenge I will face

Judge to Tetley: You are 39, of good character. Don’t stand up

Dallas ends the defence’s submissions

Dallas: Letter submitted by defendant to court shows there are grounds to be optimistic for his future

Dallas: I would ask court to conclude this is one of those people for whom real remorse, shame, empathy for his victims now. Any risk there may be can be managed.

Dallas: The only way in which he offends is by computer

Dallas: Basic facts of case, a 39-year-old man had his head turned by drink and drugs and fame and money in his hands he couldn’t ever hope to have

Dallas: He has volunteered for a scheme in prison for random drug tests. They have all been clean for him. He has been for first time in years clean of drugs and alcohol. He has been taking courses, passing exams in Maths and English and other subjects

Dallas: He was arrested in May, bailed. He encouraged the boy to delete text messages. What he didn’t do is carry on offending. Since he was remanded in custody, he has transformed

Dallas: It is clear most of these young men were relatively streetwise and initiators once they have been drawn into this by the defendant

Dallas: He had fairly and squarely incited lower level imagery to be sent to him. He set scene for two youngsters to up ante to obtain amounts of money

Dallas: The vast majority, if not all, of explicit requests for images are of images short of penetrative activity

Dallas: It is quite clear in many messages he was avoiding these people where suggesting it. He is not that type of sexual offender. He obtained images for sexual gratification

Dallas: The grooming was not grooming with a view to sexual activity between them. No contact offending here

Dallas: I accept there was a degree of passing pictures round and I accept that was an aggravating feature

Dallas: The material he obtained was not distributed to other abusers or put on the wider internet

Dallas: None of this activity was undertaken by the defendant for commercial reasons. It was for his own, personal sexual gratification

Dallas: All this offending revolves around the murky world of indirect contact, fantasy

Dallas: He was always willing to do charity work. Almost did more charity work than paid work. There is a positive and useful side to him

Dallas: He has done extensive charity work. Used his talent to help raise money for people

Dallas: He was effectively alone in a public world. Given money for his singing, all of which has gone. At the time he was locked up he was penniless

Dallas: In May last year, a friend of his took a video of him taking cocaine and sold it to a national newspaper. That culminated in a suicide attempt where he ended up in a Spanish hospital

Dallas: He progressed on X Factor. He blames elimination from the talent competition on his drug use. That had become known. No pastoral systems were offered from any organisation there. He achieved limited fame in that context. Pressures saw cocaine and alcohol produce a downward spiral

Dallas: He had shock of a heart attack 4 years ago and sought help but was unable to beat the habit. Pursued his career abroad partly in hope for him to break the habit but, as he put it, he went ‘out of the frying pan and into the fire’

Dallas: He has only had one long-term relationship, which broke up after 8 years when he was 30

Dallas: He found moving to London increased the temptation and availability of taking cocaine. He became a chronic user of it

Dallas: At the age of 22, he was very considerably shaken by the murder of a very close relative. At that low time of his life he was introduced to cocaine. Cocaine has been the bane of his life ever since

Dallas: He discovered he had one talent. That is that he could sing. After leaving school he sought to make a living as a singer, working men’s clubs and working to singing his way on to Pop Idol and a whiff of the enticing aroma of showbusiness and the celebrity world

Dallas: He left school at the age of 15 without any academic qualifications. He eventually came out as gay around the age of 18

Dallas: He was bullied at school for his facial disability and his sexual orientation, as he got older

Dallas: He was born with a very serious disability of a cleft palate. He was to undergo 14 significant operations in an attempt to improve that very serious condition

Dallas: The man you have before you and his background. It’s unusual

Dallas: Invite court to reduce whatever sentence by a third. Case has obvious feature that defendant has no previous convictions.

Dallas submits that the defendant should have full credit for his sentence – a third reduced in term he receives

Dallas: I concede significant custody must follow. The defendant accepts that

Judge to Dallas: Some of these texts (from Tetley) are very demanding

Dallas: Judge has read letter from Tetley to the judge

Andrew Dallas, defending, now to speak to the court

That is the end of the prosecution’s case

Judge says the probation report ‘pulls no punches’

Further legal discussions are currently taking place in court between defence and judge

Smith: Boy says he feels guilty having lied to his friends. His home life has suffered, his education has suffered. His relationship with his family has been damaged by this.

Smith: One of boys says he struggles to trust adults now. He added: ‘Adults don’t understand how life-changing such events can be’

Legal discussions are taking place in court between prosecutor, Michael Smith, Andrew Dallas, defending, and the judge, The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC

Tetley has just been handed a plastic cup of water

Smith: Defendant has good character, entered timely guilty pleas

Smith: We submit the fame supports the grooming

Tetley still sat down, head still bowed, wearing grey round neck jumper and light blue jeans.

Smith: His fame, his notoriety is part of his grooming conduct.

Smith: We would submit there was a degree of grooming here, as boy was a fan

Smith: All contact was late at night while Tetley was on X Factor, lasted for 2 months. Boy sent him nude image, was offered £700 for a nude video by Tetley. Boy thinks he sent 15-20 images, one of them was a penis after masturbation

Smith: Final victim, a boy,  was a fan of his. Tetley provided boy images of X Factor cast. Tetley offered to pay money for pics. He asked if boy would do it too. He would pay £400-£1,000

Smith: Boy got payments of £300-500. Boy said we let him get away with it. Some of boy’s images showed him in his school uniform

Smith: Boy said because it was all late at night, he didn’t get enough sleep for school

Smith: Another boy was 16 at the time of offences. Tetley told the boy he had paid someone else £50 of them in their boxer shorts. This lead boy to provide images to Tetley at the end of December. Image was naked and Tetley sent image to boy of him on a bed in a sexualised way

Smith: Further videos were sent between defendant and boy

Smith: Boy stopped providing images when he didn’t get paid. Boy then met Tetley and later Tetley asked boy to delete images and chats

Smith: They were proactive in providing types of videos Tetley liked to see. Tetley must bear responsibility for that as boys were first persuaded to perform in that way initially

Smith: Two of the boys in contact with Tetley separately simulated sexual acts with each other to get money from Tetley

Smith: Tetley paid boy up to £350 for videos of boy masturbating on the bed

Smith: Boy said to police he treated relationship with Tetley as a commercial arrangement. He insisted on money up front for images and made up reasons why he needed money to put Tetley under pressure for the provision of images

Smith: A degree of grooming by Tetley with boy. Tetley offered to get him an agent. Tetley said ‘I can help you with that, agent does Emmerdale and Corrie mainly’

Smith: Boy asked Tetley ‘how much for those sort of pics?’. Tetley said ‘the more you show, the better the price’

Smith: Boy thought Tetley’s request for pics was ‘sketchy’ he provided them for £50. Tetley messaged to boy ‘you have a great bod’

Smith: A further 15-year-old boy. Tetley knew how old he was.

Smith: This boy sent Tetley image of his abs and a naked pic but he was covering his genitals. Tetley offered this boy £1,000 for a pic of boy’s penis but the boy refused

Smith: Another 15-year-old met Tetley at a party. Defendant did drugs in front of them

Smith: A video of a 15-year-old boy was made and recovered of him simulating sexual intercourse and sent to defendant

Smith: Boy went along with ‘horny chats’ to get money. Boy got £100 and £50 later. These 2 boys met Tetley at a house no sexual activity took place. Boys thought Tetley was taking cocaine at time

Smith: 15-year-old provided naked images on bed, naked in bath and sent them to Tetley

Smith: One of them was 15 years old.

Smith: 2 other victims were identified.

Smith: Further sexualised chat between boy and Tetley until mid May. Tetley sent some naked images of 4 boys to this 14-year-old boy

Smith: The chats went on between boy and Tetley. Tetley offered to get boy into VIP area at rugby match. Images on May 8 from Tetley to boy. Arrangements were made for them to meet, but a meeting didn’t take place

Smith: On May 6 last year, Tetley said to boy in chats: ‘I have a great idea for a video when you’re horny’ and then Tetley explains what he would like boy to do. Boy sent him his bank details, Tetley said pics he had done so far would be worth £400

Smith: Highly sexualised chat between 14-year-old boy and Tetley. Tetley said ‘whoever f**** you first is in for a right treat’ in a message to the boy

Smith: This boy does send images of himself and Tetley instructs him the type of images he likes and wants. Tetley said: ‘That last pic would be awesome with you with boxers off, laid back on the bed’

Smith: This boy was 14. Tetley bears responsibility of nature of that chat, indicative of grooming conduct

Smith: Boy was messaged by Tetley: ‘Start with easy ones and see how you feel. Lol’

Smith: Another boy began messaging Tetley at end of May last year. Messages began normally but boy says he was bribed to send pics and videos. Tetley sent him pics of himself and sent him £200. Boy said he didn’t want to do what he did and was kind of bribed

Tetley still has head bowed and arms crossed on his front, still sat down

Smith: Boy admitted sending a ‘dick pic’ and in transparent boxer shorts. Tetley likely spent many thousands of pounds for images of the boys

Smith: Boy responded when Tetley offered money for naked images. Tetley sent boy 4 naked images and a pic of a naked 15-year-old boy and 2 other boys of a similar age

Smith: Tetley said to boy ‘I trust you so much. You have a friend for life in me’

Smith: On March 18 last year, Tetley said £350 he would pay him for a pic would be the record he would pay for a pic. Tetley wanted a pic of boy naked in mirror with towel over his penis and he would pay £1,000 for that

Smith: Messages exchanged between boy and Tetley. Tetley asked him to go to bathroom. Tetley messaged ‘jeez, they are transparent’. He messaged ‘send same pic but drop the boxers’. Tetley sent an image of what he would like for £1,000

Smith: Tetley gave boy more money and on March 16 boy offered to do pic for money and Tetley offered £150. In the image the boy sent to Tetley he was in transparent boxer shorts

Smith: Tetley offered to lend boy a car

Smith: Their conversations went back to threesome conversation and Tetley later admitted he paid others for indecent images

Smith: Tetley sent a naked pic of himself to this boy and Tetley said he would pay £50 for a ‘dick pic’ of boy. Boy refused. In a string of conversations boy sent an image to Tetley

Smith: On Feb 6, Tetley sent boy a naked pic of a 15-year-old girl. Tetley offered defendant £500 to take part in threesome between Tetley, the boy and this 15-year-old girl

Smith: At same time 14-year-old boy mentioned his family was experiencing money problems. Just information he was giving to man who was famous and showing him attention.

Tetley is sat down

Smith: Indictment linked to one of the 14-year-old complainants. Boy was impressed by Tetley’s celebrity. Tetley impressed boy by talking about girls, about his Range Rover, about other local celebrities

Tetley has his head bowed as the prosecution is reading out the case background

Smith: He said the old Danny Tetley was dead now he was sober. He thought one of the boys was 16 when he met

Smith: He mentioned his Facebook had been hacked. He admitted sexual chat with one of the boys and sending him indecent images and also to a second boy. Tetley said it was all due to X Factor and he could not cope with fame

Smith: When Tetley was arrested in May 2019, he told them he was drug and alcohol dependent. A lot of these messages were late at night. He thought the age of consent for sending such chats was 16

Smith: He engaged boys in highly sexualised chat. No sexual meetings took place. His criminal conduct was confined to online activity

Smith: Defendant gained some sort of fame as a singer, appeared in two TV talent shows; Pop Idol and X Factor, where he rached live show recently. He appeared as a singer in Benidorm.

Prosecution said he used fame, some of which he groomed. He used Whatapp and sent pornographic images of himself to show types of poses he wanted

Smith: All remaining counts to be left on the file

Second indictment which defendant entered 5 guilty pleas

Smith: Defendant is 39, has no previous convictions. He pleaded guilty to four counts, causing sexual exploitation of child, distributing indecent photos, causing sexual exploitation of child and distributing indecent image of child

Prosecutor Michael Smith will read out background to the case to the court

The Recorder of Bradford, Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC is presiding

Tetley just entered courtroom wearing a grey round neck jumper and light blue jeans