A prominent LGBT activist recently arrested on 37 charges related to the sexual abuse of children used his influential role in the community to groom a teen girl into transgenderism and BDSM. Reduxx has documented a social media trail which shows that Pride in Surrey founder Stephen Ireland began interacting with the girl online when she was as young as 16 years old and assisted her to transition into a “boy” and “leatherpup.”
On August 14, Ireland, along with one of the volunteers from his organization, David Sutton, were both arrested and jointly charged with 15 offenses, including conspiracy to kidnap a child and conspiracy to sexually assault a child.
Ireland was separately charged with an additional 22 offenses, including the rape of a child, the sexual assault of a child, and six counts of making indecent photographs of children. In all cases, the victim is said to be under the age of 13. His colleague, David Sutton, 26, was charged with an additional 7 similarly serious offenses.
Though details of the alleged offenses have not been released while the case continues to be investigated, Reduxx located disturbing interactions between Ireland and a then-underage girl who will be referred to as “Julie” in order to protect her identity.
Their interactions were conducted through both his personal account and his Pride in Surrey account. The two referred to each other as “bro,” and exchanged jokes about urine fetishism. Their earliest interactions date to 2018, when Julie was just 16. At that time she had begun counting down the days until the first Pride in Surrey event.
“We hope you will [attend]. Everyone is welcome,” the Pride in Surrey account replied to the 16 year-old girl.
“Do I get petted tho [sic]?” Julie asked, and Pride in Surrey remarked, “Only if you’re good.”
In one photo taken at the first Pride event in August 2019, Julie, then 17, can be seen attending while dressed in fetish gear associated with the “leather pup” community – a sexual subculture most commonly practiced by gay males. The subculture involves bondage and sexually submissive partners roleplaying as dogs. In the photo, Ireland is holding a lead fastened around her neck while Julie squats on the ground.
Two years later, in 2021, Ireland shared the photo of himself with the teen girl from his Pride in Surrey account in a celebratory post about International Fetish Day.
According to posts made to her social media account, Julie “started questioning” her “gender and sexuality” from the age of 11 years old and began attending Pride events in 2017, when she was 15. By the age of 16, she was involved in the “pup” fetish community.
“These Prides have helped me to understand myself and be open and proud of multiple aspects of my personality – being pansexual, transgender, and a pup,” Julie stated in July 2019 in a lengthy social media post she wrote “explaining why Pride in Surrey is so important” to her.
“For the last few months, I have been helping Pride in Surrey to organize the youth zone at the first ever Surrey Pride… I have made so much progress thanks to the Pride in Surrey team.”
Ireland appears to have taken a special interest in Julie, spending her 18th birthday with her celebrating with fetish gear and a cake. Julie had been volunteering as a representative for Pride in Surrey since she was 17 – a move she credits with her decision to begin taking testosterone, undergo a double mastectomy, and ultimately, a hysterectomy.
“I will forever adore Pride in Surrey,” Julie wrote in September of 2023, “especially given a lot of the crew are my second family. They’ve seen me start testosterone and have top surgery… I love being part of the team.”
In October of 2020, just after her twentieth birthday, Julie posted a photo of herself holding testosterone gel and announced she had begun taking the synthetic male hormone. In 2023, she underwent a double mastectomy, and at the end of that year, had a full hysterectomy. Currently, her social media account is filled with pornographic content of herself.
In March of 2024 she revealed that she had to undergo emergency surgery. “My organs literally fell out of my body and I was in agony… is this just the severity of it all hitting me? Or am I weak?”
During an interview filmed for Pride in Surrey with Ireland and colleague Jordan Gray, a trans-identified male comedian with whom Ireland has worked in the past, Ireland makes a point to mention that fetishes are a part of the Pride experience, and defends the involvement of minors in the BDSM “pup” community.
In the interaction Gray explains how, in his experience, “children inherently understand everything.”
“I’ve spoken to four and five year-olds about the transgender thing, and they’re so unphased. They understand it on a spiritual level, and they’re fine with it,” Gray says. The transgender comedian prompted outcry in 2022 after he stripped naked on a live television program and played a keyboard with his penis.
“Children are innocent, they don’t know,” Ireland replies. “It’s like when people complain about pups and kink individuals being at Pride because of kids. It’s like, hang on a minute, they’re not doing anything untoward outright, they’re marching… they were there at the Stonewall riot right at the beginning. These kids don’t know what’s going on. They only know if you’re telling them that this is wrong, this is disgusting, this is bad,” Ireland states, as Gray nods in agreement.
Ireland has repeatedly mocked and harassed women who criticize gender identity ideology as “TERFs,” an acronym which stands for “trans-exclusionary radical feminist” and is frequently used to call for violence or social punishment. Among those Ireland has targeted are JK Rowling, as well as Surrey Police and Crime Commissioner Lisa Townsend. He had also issued a threat warning “TERFs” away from attending any Pride in Surrey events.
As previously reported by Reduxx, Ireland’s LGBT organization was responsible for arranging the annual Pride festivities, which included activities for children and youth. As a result of his activism, Ireland garnered the support of Surrey Police, who regularly attended events he organized in cars outfitted with rainbow decals.
On June 6, shortly before Ireland was arrested on numerous child sexual abuse charges, Surrey Police visited local school Woking High with his organization to take part in “Pride engagement” work. The force would have already been aware of the charges prepared to be pressed against Ireland at this time.
Ireland was also involved in organizations which promoted the concept of gender identity to children as young as 3 years old, and encouraged parents to initiate a regime of puberty-halting drugs on their children.
Ireland worked alongside leading LGBT activist Peter Tatchell, with whom he has attended events and has praised as an “inspiration.” Tatchell has been widely regarded as a pedophile sympathizer by many, and, as previously reported by Reduxx, Tatchell has an unsettling history of downplaying the harms of child sexual abuse.
Tatchell’s own organization, the Peter Tatchell Foundation, also works closely with the London Metropolitan Police in order to establish “collaboration and cooperation”, and last February, he was presented with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gaydio Pride Awards in Manchester.
In 2012, Ireland posted a disturbing remark to his social media defending notorious child sexual abuser Jimmy Savile, who is thought to have sexually abused as many as 500 young girls during his lifetime.
For several years, local police officers were regular attendees of Pride in Surrey events, and from their official social media account, encouraged citizens to follow Ireland’s activist group. In 2021, Ireland was invited to speak at an LGBT History Month Seminar hosted by Surrey Police. In February of 2024, Pride in Surrey also shortlisted Surrey Police for a Community Champion Award. The page listing the event has since been scrubbed, but was viewed by Reduxx prior to its deletion.
Surrey Police are calling for anyone with information into the ongoing investigation to get in touch by quoting ref PR/45240080974 using the live chat on its website, the online reporting tool, or calling 101. Individuals who wish not to speak directly to police can report information to Crimestoppers anonymously by calling 0800 555 111.