Raymond Teret (24 October 1941 – 5 May 2021) was an English radio

disc jockey A disc jockey, more commonly abbreviated as DJ, is a person who plays recorded music for an audience. Types of DJs include radio DJs (who host programs on music radio stations), club DJs (who work at a nightclub or music festival), mobile ...

who started his career in the 1960s. In December 2014 he was convicted of rape and indecent assault, and was sentenced to 25 years in prison."Ray Teret jailed for 25 years over sexual abuse"
''The Guardian'' (Press Association), 11 December 2014 He died in prison in May 2021 at the age of 79, having served just over six years behind bars.

Early life and career

Teret was born in

Salisbury Salisbury ( ) is a cathedral city in Wiltshire, England with a population of 41,820, at the confluence of the rivers Avon, Nadder and Bourne. The city is approximately from Southampton and from Bath. Salisbury is in the southeast of ...

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...

, and began work as a warehouse clerk, apprentice heating engineer and waiter at the Ritz Ballroom in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

. In the early 1960s, Teret met Jimmy Savile after winning the Savile-run singing contest at the Palace Theatre in Manchester. The two men later shared a flat on Great Clowes Street in Broughton,

Salford Salford () is a city and the largest settlement in the City of Salford metropolitan borough in Greater Manchester, England. In 2011, Salford had a population of 103,886. It is also the second and only other city in the metropolitan county afte ...

, with Teret becoming Savile's support DJ, assistant and chauffeur. Teret joined

Radio Caroline Radio Caroline is a British radio station founded in 1964 by Ronan O'Rahilly and Alan Crawford initially to circumvent the record companies' control of popular music broadcasting in the United Kingdom and the BBC's radio broadcasting monopoly ...

North in the mid-1960s, where he became known as "Ugli" Ray Teret. His theme music was "Jungle Fever" by

the Tornados The Tornados (The Tornadoes in North America) were an English instrumental rock group of the 1960s that acted as backing group for many of record producer Joe Meek's productions and also for singer Billy Fury. They enjoyed several chart hi ...

, and he also used " The Ugly Bug Ball" by

Burl Ives Burl Icle Ivanhoe Ives (June 14, 1909 – April 14, 1995) was an American musician, actor, and author with a career that spanned more than six decades. Ives began his career as an itinerant singer and guitarist, eventually launching his own rad ...

. After leaving Radio Caroline North in 1966, two years before it closed down, Teret worked in a series of DJ- and media-related work, mainly on

Piccadilly Radio Greatest Hits Radio Manchester & The North West is an Independent Local Radio station based in Manchester, England, owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Greatest Hits Radio Network. It broadcasts to Greater Manchester and North West Eng ...

in Manchester and

Signal Radio Signal 1 is an Independent Local Radio station owned and operated by Bauer as part of the Hits Radio network. It broadcasts to Staffordshire and South Cheshire. As of September 2022, the station has a weekly audience of 172,000 listeners ...

in Stoke-on-Trent.

Sexual assaults

In 1999, when he was 58 years old, Teret was found guilty of unlawful sex with a 15-year-old girl. On 8 November 2012, Teret was arrested at his home on Woodlands Road in

Altrincham Altrincham ( , locally ) is a market town in Trafford, Greater Manchester, England, south of the River Mersey. It is southwest of Manchester city centre, southwest of Sale and east of Warrington. At the 2011 Census, it had a population ...

Greater Manchester Police Greater Manchester Police (GMP) is the territorial police force responsible for law enforcement within the metropolitan county of Greater Manchester in North West England. , Greater Manchester Police employed 6,866 police officers, 3,524 memb ...

, one of two arrests made in connection with an allegation of historic

rape Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration carried out against a person without their consent. The act may be carried out by physical force, coercion, abuse of authority, or ...

. The offences are alleged to have taken place in

Trafford Trafford is a metropolitan borough of Greater Manchester, England, with an estimated population of 235,493 in 2017. It covers Retrieved on 13 December 2007. and includes the area of Old Trafford and the towns of Altrincham, Stretford, Ur ...

in the 1960s and 1970s against three women who were then children. The arrests were not part of Operation Yewtree (the investigation into offences allegedly committed by Jimmy Savile and others) though Teret had been a close associate of Savile. In October 2014, Teret appeared at

Minshull Street Crown Court Minshull Street Crown Court is a complex of court buildings on Minshull Street in Manchester. The court was designated a Grade II* listed building on 3 October 1974. It is one of two Crown Courts in Manchester, the other being Manchester Crown Co ...

accused of more than 30 offences of sexual abuse, including 18 charges of rape, some dating back to the 1960s. One of the charges related to an alleged offence committed by Teret and Savile together. Two other men, William Harper and Alan Ledger, were also charged, and were tried alongside Teret. All three men denied all the charges. In December Teret was found guilty of seven charges of rape and eleven charges of indecent assault, with one victim aged only 12. The other two defendants were found not guilty of all charges, and Teret was acquitted of assisting Savile to rape an alleged victim, but was found guilty of raping the same complainant himself. On 11 December 2014, Mr Justice Baker sentenced Teret to 25 years in prison. The judge said that it was likely that most, if not all, of his remaining years would be spent in prison, and that had Teret been convicted nearer the time of the offences, a life sentence would have been appropriate. A lawyer for 169 of Savile's victims stated that Teret's conviction represents "the closest the victims of Jimmy Savile will get to a conviction against their attacker". On 17 May 2015, a television programme detailing the investigation into the claims of historic sexual abuse against Teret was broadcast on BBC Two. '' The Detectives'' depicted investigators discovering extensive graffiti dating to the 1960s and '70s behind the wallpaper in Teret's former apartment. The names, telephone numbers and other data in the graffiti both confirmed the testimony of victims and contradicted Teret's testimony that he did not know the victims.

Death

Teret died in prison in Manchester on 5 May 2021."Ray Teret: Former DJ jailed for raping girls dies in prison", ''BBC News'', 5 May 2021
Retrieved 6 May 2021

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Teret, Ray 1941 births 2021 deaths 20th-century English criminals English people convicted of indecent assault Chauffeurs Criminals from Wiltshire English people convicted of rape English people convicted of child sexual abuse English people who died in prison custody English radio DJs Jimmy Savile Offshore radio broadcasters People from Salisbury Pirate radio personalities Prisoners who died in England and Wales detention