Overview

• Stephen Ireland was sentenced to 24 years in prison plus a six-year licence period after being convicted of grooming, drugging, filming and raping a 12-year-old boy at his Surrey flat
• David Sutton received a 4½-year term for facilitating the offences, including voyeurism, arranging a child sex offence and possession of prohibited images
• Prosecutors told Guildford Crown Court Ireland used his role as safeguarding lead to lure the boy via Grindr, supply meth-laced drugs and record the assault
• J.K. Rowling posted on X mocking Ireland’s sentence—misstating it as 30 years—and linked the case to trans-identified activist Lexi Secker’s six-year rape term
• Local campaigners and officials are demanding an independent review of Pride in Surrey’s safeguarding procedures following the high-profile convictions