Former X Factor star Danny Tetley has pleaded guilty to a shocking string of child sexual exploitation charges involving teenage boys as young as 14.
This afternoon the 39-year-old entered his guilty pleas to five charges of causing sexual exploitation of a child, in this case five teenagers aged 15 and 16.
It can be revealed that Tetley previously admitted to four separate allegations of sexual crimes involving two 14-year-olds, following the lifting of a court order preventing publication.
During the three-month trial at Bradford Crown Court, Tetley faced charges including: five counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; four counts of possessing indecent images of children; sexual exploitation of a child and one count of committing an act to or attempt to pervert the course of justice.
He was also accused of making 27 category A indecent images of a child – the most serious category that concerns penetrative sexual activity or images involving animals and sadism.
The charges admitted at Bradford Crown Court cover a period between October 2018 and August this year. Tetley finished sixth in the 15th series of the ITV programme, and the allegations date back to when the singer was still active on the show.
Prosecutor Michael Smith told the judge that the Crown would not seek to try Tetley on other outstanding allegations to which he had pleaded not guilty and the case was now ready for sentence.
“The investigation is complete and the victims have been identified,” said Mr Smith.
Some of the charges faced by Tetley include allegations that he tried to induce two boys to send him indecent images which would be in the most serious category for such offences.
Judge Durham Hall fixed the sentence hearing for January 24 next year and said the case would go ahead on that day barring an exceptional problem.
Tetley, who appeared in the dock wearing a black short-sleeve t-shirt and pale blue jeans, was remanded back into custody until next month.