Ex-soap actor guilty of sexual offences

A former EastEnders actor who committed sexual offences against three teenage girls while he was a youth worker has been sentenced to a suspended jail term of 18 months.

Joseph Shade, 24, who played Peter Beale in the soap from 1998 to 2004, admitted a string of offences against girls aged between 14 and 17, committed while he was working in Norfolk.

Norwich Crown Court heard that he sent text messages to girls asking them to have sex or send him pictures of their breasts, and on a single occasion he touched one girl on the bottom.

Judge Maureen Bacon QC, sentencing Shade on Friday, told him: “You sought to engage vulnerable teenage girls in sexual activity when you were in a position of trust.”

He was handed an 18-month prison sentenced suspended for 24 months, a five-year sexual harm prevention order barring him from working with children and vulnerable adults, and ordered to complete 150 hours of unpaid work.

He must also sign the sex offenders register and complete a 60-day offender programme.

Judge Bacon said she took into account Shade’s age at the time of offending, his maturity level, his guilty pleas and that he had not offended since.

The offences happened between 2012 and 2015, when Shade was aged between 19 and 21.

Actor Joseph Shade.