Sex predators
Ex-BBC radio stars jailed 5 years for assaults on boys Judge: Ordeal damaging for victims as young as 11
TWO disgraced ex-BBC presenters wept in the dock yesterday as they were jailed for indecent assaults on a string of schoolboys.
Julie and Tony Wadsworth, who were known as the Richard and Judy of local radio, were branded “sexual predators” and sentenced to five years each.
The depraved couple had encouraged six lads – including one aged 11 – to watch or take part in sexual activity in woods near their luxury home in Warwickshire between 1992 and 1996.
A judge said the perverts, who worked for BBC Radio Leicester and BBC WM, had “lured” and “groomed” the youngsters by having sex in public.
Julie, 60, a mum-of-one and a grandmother, performed sex acts on the boys while her husband acted as “lookout”.
She wore a “flasher’s” coat, white highheels, and stockings and suspenders for the encounters – telling the curious boys who spotted their romps to “come and have a play”. Judge Andrew Lockhart QC said it was “staringly obvious” their victims were young boys and the experiences had left them “damaged”.
He said: “For some reason their age and the opportunity to teach them, as you saw it, gave you a sexual thrill.
“They were all damaged by the experience. All had an improper introduction to sexual activity in the wrong hands.
“You gave those boys instructions on what to do. Some of them were so very clearly very young. You could not resist.
“Your sexual desire drove you. You decided to move outside your marriage to gain more excitement.”
Judge Lockhart told Julie: “You liked the attention and were flattered young boys were attracted to an older woman.”
The couple were convicted of nine indecent assaults and five counts of outraging decency after a three-week trial. Julie mouthed “I love you” to her 69-year-old husband and they sobbed
and held hands during yesterday’s sentencing hearing. As they were jailed, they embraced and burst into tears.
During the trial, victims told of how they were abused in Mancetter Park, near Atherstone, Warks. Miranda Moore QC, prosecuting, said an 11-year-old was among those who saw them having sex.
She said they took “delight in the fact young lads were watching”. She added: “The boys were too young by law to be participants. Julie would encourage one at a time to engage in sexual activity. She was doing the activity but Tony… was there to watch in line of sight usually… to act as a lookout or ‘minder’.”
Julie also sunbathed topless in short skirts with no knickers. Once, a boy was “spooked” by Tony standing nearby with a camera. The award-winning DJ also performed sex acts on himself while watching his wife with the youngsters. Victims went to police in 2015 after one realised what happened was “not right”.
One man said he had up to 15 encounters with Julie, half of them before he was 16. And he claimed they included a threesome with the couple after he turned 16.
Giving evidence, they admitted to “outdoor hanky-panky” but said the strangers were “men, not boys”. Tony claimed the encounters made his wife feel “more empowered as a woman”. The couple, of Broughton Astley, Leics, were cleared of one joint count of indecent assault, while Julie was cleared of two counts of the same offence.
Her barrister, David Hislop QC, said she had suffered a “tragic fall from grace”. Tony’s lawyer, Michelle Clarke, said his life “has come crashing down”.
After the case, prosecutors said the couple, suspended by the BBC in December 2015, led “double lives”. The CPS’s David Rouse said: “In their public and professional lives, they came across as caring, warm and respectable. In private, they preyed on young, impressionable victims for sexual gratification.”
A BBC spokesman said: “We are as appalled as everyone by these crimes, that are unconnected to their BBC work. They are no longer employed by the BBC.”
The NSPCC said Julie’s claims in court that she was the victim were “insulting”.
The Wadsworths must also sign the sex offenders register for life.