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X Factor star Danny Tetley jailed for nine years for child sex offences


Danny was sentenced today (Picture: ITV)

X Factor star Danny Tetley has been sentenced to nine years in prison for child sex offences.

The 39-year-old appeared today at Bradford Crown Court today, after pleading guilty of inducing five teenage boys between the ages of 15 and 16 to send him indecent images for money.

His nine-year jail term forms part of a 17-year extended sentence, meaning Tetley will be closely monitored on licence for eight years after being released from the nine year jail term.

Judge Jonathan Durham Hall QC said: ‘This has been most distressing for the victims,

‘The press are here in force for the extent of gravity of the case, the number of child victims. Your celebrity is now gone, tarnished and destroyed.’

The judge said that Tetley ‘exploited’ the status that The X Factor gave him, saying: ‘You abused that status to satisfy your perverted sexual needs,’ and assessed Tetley as a ‘highly predatory and manipulative individual’.

Tetley showed no emotion leaving the court (Picture: Photo: S Meddle/ITV/REX)

Tetley showed no emotion as he left the court.

Before sentencing, the defence claimed that Tetley was bullied in school due to his ‘facial disability’, after 14 operations for a cleft palate as a child.

Andrew Dallas said: ‘He was bullied at school for his facial disability and his sexual orientation, as he got older. He left school at the age of 15 without any academic qualifications. He eventually came out as gay around the age of 18.

‘He discovered he had one talent. That is that he could sing. After leaving school he sought to make a living as a singer, working men’s clubs and working to singing his way on to Pop Idol and a whiff of the enticing aroma of showbusiness and the celebrity world.’

Dallas added that Tetley became a ‘chronic user’ of cocaine in his 20s after a close relative was murdered, and that he attempted suicide after a friend sold a video of him using cocaine to the press.

Tetley appeared on The X Factor in 2018 (Picture: Jo Hale/Redferns)

The prosecution said that one of the boys was offered £700 for a nude video by Tetley, with the boy saying he sent 15 to 20 images, one being a penis after masturbation.

The boy was a fan of Tetley’s, with the singer providing him with images of the X Factor cast.

Prosecutor Michael Smith said that another boy was paid £350 for videos of the boy masturbating, while Tetley offered to get another boy into the VIP area of a rugby match.

In December, the singer formally entered a guilty plea at Bradford Crown Court for five charges of causing sexual exploitation of a child.

Tetley was accused of sending the messages between October 2018 and August 2019; The X Factor ran from September to December 2018, with Tetley being eliminated in November.

Tetley, of Bradford, pleaded not guilty to making indecent images of children and perverting the course of justice, and will not stand trial for these offences.

Tetley’s barrister Andrew Dallas had asked for the sentencing to be adjourned so the defence had time to consider ‘well over 10,000’ text messages and WhatsApp messages served.

Some of the explicit images requested were at most serious Category A, which according to the Crown Prosecution Service, would show ‘images involving penetrative sexual activity, sexual activity with an animal or sadism’.

Category B images depict non-penetrative sexual activity, while Category C images are classed as indecent images which do not fall into categories A or B.

The NSPCC told the Bradford Telegraph and Argus: ‘Tetley’s use of his TV appearances and promises of money in the thousands of messages he sent these boys, are an example of the depraved lengths that predators will go to in their pursuit of victims.

‘This kind of abuse can have a profound and long-lasting impact, and this case underlines why it is so vital that social media companies are forced to make safeguarding our children their top priority. We continue to call on the Government to introduce new legislation that enforces a formal Duty of Care to keep young people safe online.

‘As part of the NSPCC’s Wild West Web campaign, we are calling on people to email their MP urging them to back a new Bill that paves the way for a proper independent watchdog to regulate online harms against children.

Danny made it to sixth place in the last standard series of The X Factor, after Ayda Field chose him as part of her over-28s group.

He first appeared on TV when he tried out for Pop Idol in 2001.

Before pleading guilty in December, Tetley had denied the allegations.

The singer, who worked in Benidorm as a performer, told The Sun: ‘This kind of thing has gone on for ages because people don’t like to see me do well.

‘I’ve never handled the fame very well. I haven’t worked this hard just for me to be slaughtered.’

Metro.co.uk has contacted a rep for X Factor for comment. 

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