Chris Denning’s Prison Passing
Former Radio 1 DJ and convicted paedophile Chris Denning has passed away in prison while serving two 13-year sentences.
Convictions and Prison Time
Denning, a friend of Jimmy Savile, was incarcerated after being convicted of sex offences against boys as young as eight.
He died at the age of 81 in a hospital from diabetes last year, but this information has only recently been disclosed in a prison watchdog report.
Location of Incarceration
At the time of his death in June last year, Denning was held at HMP Bedford.
The cause of his death was a bone infection caused by diabetes.
Lack of Timely Care
A clinical reviewer for the Prisons and Probation Ombudsman reported that when clinical readings indicated that Mr. Denning needed emergency care, he was not transferred to the hospital for treatment.
The reviewer also claimed that the care he received in custody was “worse” than what he could have expected to receive as a free man.
Issues in End-of-Life Care
The report highlighted “issues of concern in Mr. Denning’s end of life care.”
Denning’s History of Offenses
Chris Denning’s legal troubles began in 2006 when he was jailed after admitting to five charges of abusing boys under 16, resulting in a four-year prison sentence.
Following this case, he was extradited to Slovakia and sentenced to five years for producing indecent images of children.
Operation Yewtree and More Convictions
Denning’s name resurfaced when the Met Police launched Operation Yewtree, which investigated claims of sex abuse.
He was convicted of 40 offenses against 24 boys aged between nine and 16. The court labeled him “utterly depraved” and sentenced him to 13 years.
Additional Convictions
In 2016, Denning admitted to abusing another 11 boys, some as young as eight, leading to another 13-year sentence.
Despite his past, Denning was one of the founding DJs on BBC Radio 1 and played a significant role in the music industry during his career.
History of Legal Troubles
However, in the 1970s, he was exposed as a sex offender and later convicted of gross indecency in 1974.
In 1998, he was jailed for three years for indecent assault and possessing indecent images, and in 1996, he was prosecuted for publishing indecent articles.