The founder of an LGBT pride organization in Surrey, UK, worked closely with local police while committing vile crimes against children. Stephen Ireland, 40, the head of Pride in Surrey, was eventually arrested by the same officers who had been promoting his “anti-hate” efforts and campaign to teach local children about gender ideology.

On August 14, Ireland, along with one of the volunteers from his organization, were both arrested and jointly accused with 15 felonies, including conspiracy to kidnap a child and conspiracy to sexually assault a child.

Ireland was separately charged with 22 additional offences, including rape of a child, 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 partner, David Sutton, 26, was charged with a further seven equally serious offences.

Following the establishment of Pride in Surrey for Ireland in 2018, the organization was responsible for organizing the annual Pride festivities, which includes activities for children and young people. As a result of her activism, Ireland gained the support of Surrey Police, who regularly attended her events in cars fitted with rainbow decals.

On June 6, shortly before Ireland was arrested on multiple charges of child sexual abuse, Surrey Police visited the local school of Woking High with his organisation to participate in the work of “Pride engagement”. The force should I was already aware of it of the charges prepared to be brought against Ireland at this time.

However, this was not the first time Pride in Surrey had worked with local law enforcement.

In 2021, Ireland was invited to speak at an LGBT History Month seminar organized by Surrey Police. In February 2024, Pride in Surrey also shortlisted Surrey Police for a Community Champion Award. The page listing the event has since been deletedbut was seen by Redux before its removal.

In 2018, according to a social media post made by the Pride in Surrey account, Ireland was invited to speak at a training day for Surrey Police's LGBT+ Liaison Officer Working Group.

For several years, local police officers were regular attendees at Pride events and from his official social media accountencouraged citizens to follow the group of activists in Ireland.

Surrey Police has come under intense scrutiny since the publication of Ireland's arrest, as it is not the first time it has been found to be working closely with a person accused of sex offenses against minors.

As previously reported Reduxsurrey police is known toughen enforcement of the allegations of convicted child sex offenders Stephanie Hayden, a trans-identified man who often targets women critical of his trans activism.

On October 3, 2022, Surrey Police arrested mother Caroline Farrow in front of their children for the posts he made on social media about Hayden. Her electronic devices were confiscated and she was subjected to intense interrogation for her views on gender ideology. The arrest, along with others initiated by Hayden, have led some to argue that Surrey Police shows a particular favoritism towards the convicted pedophile.

Disturbing, since its foundation Pride in SurreyIreland had been actively leading diversity, equity and inclusion seminars (DEI), i was a patron from trans activist charity Educate and Celebrate.

The charity, founded by Dr Elly Barnes, a teacher who received an MBE for her contribution to equality and diversity in education, aimed to 'mainstream gender, gender identity and sexual orientation into fabric” of society's institutions.

To further this goal, Educate and Celebrate has created gender identity learning plans and resources for public schools aimed at children and teens.

In 2017, charity placed books that encouraged children to question their gender in their reading lists for nursery and primary schools, meaning they would be accessible to children up to the age of three.

The organization directed a PRIDE Youth Network Program addressed to children from 11 to 18 years years, and encouraged young people to “campaign for social justice in their schools” while offering “a particular focus on gender identity and sexual orientation”.

Educate and Celebrate also boasted its global reach, having collaborated with international schools use their resources in classrooms in Thailand and Cambodia.

Ireland was a patron of Educate and Celebrate alongside prominent LGBT campaigner Peter Tatchell, with whom Ireland has attended events and hailed as an “inspiration”. Tatchell has been widely regarded by many as a pedophile sympathizer and, as previously reported ReduxTatchell has a disturbing history of downplaying the harms of child sexual abuse.

In 1986, Tatchell contributed a chapter to a book compiled by Warren Middleton, former vice president of the Pedophile Information Exchange (PIE), titled “Betrayal of Youth: Radical perspectives on Childhood Sexuality, Intergenerational Sex, and the Social Oppression of Children and Young People.” PIE, which for a decade defended the decriminalization of sexual relations between adults and minors and called for abolition of the age of consentdisbanded in 1984 and several prominent members were arrested on child sexual abuse charges.

However, Tatchell's previous defense has not prevented him from continuing his career as an LGBT activist, nor has it irreparably damaged his reputation. His organization, the Peter Tatchell Foundationhe is currently working with London's Metropolitan Police to establish “collaboration and co-operation”, and last February he received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Gaydio Pride Awards in Manchester.

Ireland congratulated Tatchell on social media, saying: “Thank you for being an inspiration and doing what you do for the rights of so many people around the world.”

Educate and celebrate mysteriously closed in January after years of controversy, including outrage over one of its patrons, trans male comedian Jordan Gray, naked on a live tv show and played a keyboard with his penis.

Gray had claimed to have spoken to students in schools about “gender” on behalf of Educate and Celebrate, adding that “young kids get it straight away”.

While in her leadership role with Pride in Surrey, Ireland promoted BDSM and fetish activities on social media.

In 2021, he posted a photo of himself celebrating International Fetish Day at Surrey Pride with a young man identified only as 'Pup Astro' sporting a collar and leash.

But Educate and Celebrate was not the only trans activist group immersed in the controversy with which Ireland had been associated.

For years, Ireland endorsed the trans youth charity Mermaids, an organization that advocates an affirmative-only approach to gender dysphoria in young people, promoting the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones and surgeries to minors who claim to be transgender. In a statement issued on March 12 Condemning NHS England's ban on prescribing drugs to stop puberty, Mermaids argued that the drugs were part of “holistic and supportive health care for young trans people”.

In October 2022, Mermaids received heavy criticism after this was revealed a member of its board of trusteesJacob Breslow, associate professor at the London School of Economics, had, on several occasions, gave statements and published academic papers which portrayed pedophilia favorably. Breslow had spoken at a conference organized by the pedophile advocacy organization B4U-Act, had shared child sexual abuse material through a now-deleted blog, and advocated reframing pedophilia as a sexual identity comparable to the 'homosexuality.