PRIDE AND PREDATOR

Late last year, I released Pride and Predator as a series of episodes examining the rise and fall of Stephen Ireland, the founder of Surrey Pride. Many of you said you wanted a way to hear the entire investigation in one sitting, whether for a long journey, walking the dog, or simply so you don't have to lift a finger between episodes. So I’ve brought the whole story together into a single feature...

Cllr Mandy Clare - What Happens When You Don’t Look Away This is a bonus episode - an extended interview with Mandy Clare , a local councillor who did what so many others wouldn’t: she turned up, she paid attention, and she refused to pretend that safeguarding failures were none of her business. Mandy isn’t a campaigner by instinct. She’s a councillor who took her responsibilities seriously, parti...

Bev Jackson - From Gay Liberation to the Capture of Pride This is a bonus episode - an extended, in-depth conversation with Bev Jackson , one of the founding members of the UK Gay Liberation Front, a co-founder of LGB Alliance , and a woman who has watched the gay rights movement from its birth to its current, deeply troubling incarnation. I wanted this conversation in the series because you canno...

In this episode, I go to Guildford to see what happens after Stephen Ireland and David Sutton have been convicted of serious child sexual offences. The question is simple: once the facts are established in court, do the institutions involved stop, reflect, and account for what went wrong? What I find instead is continuity. Pride in Surrey goes ahead . Public bodies continue to lend support. Safegu...

I n Episode Two, we move past the surface scandal and into the machinery that failed , repeatedly, predictably, and catastrophically. This episode is about safeguarding. Or rather, the deliberate dismantling of it. By 2021, Stephen Ireland wasn’t just a Pride organiser. He was embedded . He had access, credibility, the ear of police, councillors, and public bodies - and he was using all of it. At...

It’s a late Autumn afternoon in Surrey. The drinks prices are extortionate, the sound system is punishing, and Pride is in full swing - a rainbow-washed festival of slogans, sponsors and sanctimony. On the surface, it looks like joy. Scratch that surface and something else is going on. This is Episode One of Pride and Predator - the start of an investigation into how Stephen Ireland, the founder o...