Former Teesside Radio One DJ Mark Page found guilty of child sex crimes

Mark Page, who previously worked for Radio One and BBC Radio Cleveland in the 1980s, was convicted of four out of five counts of arranging the commission of a child sex offence in relation to children in the Philippines.

It included Page arranging to have sex with children as young as 12 in the country.

Two of the offences were committed remotely from the UK in 2016, while two happened in the Philippines on trips made by Page in 2016 and 2019.

The 63-year-old divorced father-of-three used frequent business trips to the Philippines, as well as charity work, as a cover for his perverted interest in underage sex, the trial heard.

The jury cleared him of one of the charges.

Page was well known on Teesside for his radio work and also as the match announcer at Middlesbrough FC for 20 years until his arrest.

He was also owner of Pool FM, which staged several trial broadcasts in Hartlepool.

Cleveland Police carried out a search warrant at his home in January 2020 after Facebook alerted a charity following concerns about messaging on its platform.

Page told the court that his electronic devices had been hacked but did not mention this when interviewed by police, instead giving “no comment” answers. He later explained to the jury he was in shock.

Jo Kidd, prosecuting, drew parallels with higher profile paedophiles including Jimmy Savile and Gary Glitter during her damning closing speech to the jury.

Page, of Ingleby Barwick, will be sentenced on Thursday, March 10.

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