Ex-BBC DJ Chris Denning pleads guilty to child abuse

The former DJ pleaded guilty to 40 sexual offenses against 26 boys over 20 year period

Former Radio 1 DJ Chris Denning has admitted to a string of child abuse offences (PA)

Former BBC DJ Chris Denning has pleaded guilty to 41 sexual offences against 28 boys between the ages of nine and 16 over a 20 year period.

In August Denning admitted to 29 charges of sexual offences, which took place between 1967 and 1984, but pleaded not guilty to a further 12 charges.

In court on Friday Denning admitted to having committed the 12 charges he had previously denied. The offences involved eight boys between the ages of 10 and 16, which occurred between 1977 and 1987.

The disgraced former Radio 1 DJ pleaded guilty to 10 charges of indecent assault on a male, one charge of gross indecency and one charge of indecency with a child on Friday at Southwark Crown Court.

He also denied one count of indecent assault on a male.

It takes the total number of sexual offences Denning has admitted to committing to 41.

His sentencing is due to take place on 9 December.

Denning, 73, of Basildon, Essex, was first arrested by detectives as part of the sex crime inquiry Operation Yewtree which was set up in the wake of the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal in June 2013.

Denning was one of the original Radio 1 line-up at the BBC and was the first announcer heard on BBC2 when the television channel launched in 1967.