Ex Radio 1 DJ Mark Page has been handed 12 years in prison, after a jury found him guilty of trying to arrange sex with children as young as 12 in the Philippines.
The former Middlesborough FC match announcer, 63, denied five counts of arranging the commission of a child sex offence, but yesterday a jury at Teesside Crown Court found him guilty of four of those counts.
They found him innocent on one count, where it was alleged he intended for someone to expose their genitalia over webcam.
Today, Judge Paul Watson QC, told Page he was involved in “grotesque sexual abuse of young children for your own sexual gratification” and he took advantage of the “poverty and depravation in an under-developed country in which children are routinely forced, through economic and social depravation into acts of prostitution.”
He went on: “Your sole purpose was to engage in children as young as 12 , in vile sexual activity to satisfy your perverted sexual appetites.”
He added: "It did not matter to you that you were robbing them of the innocence of their childhoods, it did not matter to you what long-term trauma and emotional damage you were leading them to."
One of the counts related to Page arranging to "engage in sexual activity" with a 13-year-old boy in exchange for payment. The judge said on this occasion he was "satisfied the intended sexual activity did take place."
The fifth count related to Page arranging with a third party to "source" a 13-year-old child for sexual activity when he visited the Philippines. The judge said it was again "clear" that sex did take place.
The divorced father-of-three, of Ingleby Barwick, Teesside, committed the offences via a webcam linking his home to the Philippines and when he had travelled to that country, which he visited regularly for business reasons the court heard. The offences happened over a two to three year period.
At the start of the trial, Jo Kidd, prosecuting, told jurors: “He used charity and business as a cover to meet under-age people in order to meet them for sex.”
The court was told Page had bargained down the price to have a 13-year-old boy involved, saying in a message “3k too much for him”, later making a payment of 2,000 Philippine pesos (about £30).
Facebook monitors raised concerns about messages which exploited children which were sent to a charity that protects young people.
Cleveland Police carried out a search warrant at Page’s home in January 2020, seizing his phone, tablet and a computer tower, which the Crown said showed Page had been in contact with children in the Philippines and had arranged payments by money transfers.
Throughout the trial, which started last Monday, Page argued that his accounts had been hacked, and various people had access to them. However, DS Stephen Rookes, who investigated the case said there was no evidence Page’s emails were hacked, and a digital investigator for Cleveland Police said the same thing about the DJ’s accounts.
For the separate counts, Page was handed a total of 34 years in prison, to run concurrently as 12 years.
In the early and mid 1980s, Page presented the BBC Radio 1 early weekend breakfast show.
In later years he was granted a licence to run a station to broadcast to British garrisons.
