Chris Denning was imprisoned several times in the United Kingdom, Czechia and Slovakia between 1985 and his death in custody in 2022.
20 Facts About Chris Denning
1.
2.
Christopher David Denning was born in Hayes, Middlesex on 10 May 1941.
3.
Chris Denning grew up in Cowley, Oxford, the only child of middle-class parents.
4.
Chris Denning has said that he was a rent boy from the age of 13 and remained so until the age of 18.
5.
Chris Denning then returned to the UK in time to become the first announcer heard on BBC2 when it began broadcasting in 1964.
6.
Chris Denning worked for Radio Luxembourg and Radio London before presenting the Saturday afternoon programme Where It's At with Kenny Everett on the BBC Light Programme.
7.
Chris Denning then became one of the original DJs on BBC Radio 1, where he continued presenting Where It's At, had his own weekly show and deputised as necessary for Tony Blackburn on the latter's breakfast show.
8.
Chris Denning left Radio 1 in 1969 after facing accusations that his job there came into conflict with his new promotional job at Decca Records, which the BBC initially agreed to with provisos.
9.
Chris Denning then became the number two producer at Bell Records and was involved in developing the careers of the Bay City Rollers and Gary Glitter.
10.
In 1959, Chris Denning was jailed in Germany for distributing pornographic images.
11.
Chris Denning was arrested in August 2005 at Heathrow Airport after returning to Britain from Austria.
12.
Chris Denning admitted to five charges of the indecent assault of boys aged under 16 years of age, dating back to the 1970s and 1980s: he was convicted the following February and imprisoned for four years.
13.
Chris Denning had been briefly held in custody in Bratislava during 2004 following a search of his house, but then quickly left the country.
14.
The allegations made against Chris Denning were not part of those relating to Jimmy Savile.
15.
Chris Denning was charged with six offences stemming from the Operation Ravine investigation on 7 June 2016.
16.
On 7 December 2017, Chris Denning pleaded not guilty to two counts of indecent assault and one of taking indecent photos of a child between March 1979 and March 1981.
17.
Chris Denning's trial was due to start on 11 June 2018, but the charges were dropped on 13 June.
18.
Chris Denning died while in prison custody in Bedford Hospital on 24 June 2022, as a result of a bone infection caused by diabetes.
19.
Chris Denning's death was not reported publicly until October 2023.
20.
The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman, which investigates deaths in prison custody, found that "when clinical readings first showed that Mr Chris Denning needed emergency care, he was not transferred to hospital for treatment".