In Dark Corners

Jan 29 2025 9 ep. 26 mins 179

In Dark Corners Podcast artwork

Campaigning journalist, broadcaster and historian Alex Renton shines a light into the dark corners of British society.

Society & Culture

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1. Ashdown House

Jan 07 2025 27 mins

Alex Renton attended three traditional private schools. When he was eight he left home and boarded at Ashdown House, a prep school in East Sussex; a feeder school to Eton College.Within weeks of his arrival he was sexually abused by a teacher. The teacher was never charged or even sacked. He died in 2011, a free man. The assault, compounded by the physical and emotional abuse so of

2. Eton to Fettes

Jan 07 2025 27 mins

Alex Renton attended three traditional private schools. When he was eight he left home and boarded at Ashdown House, a prep school in East Sussex; a feeder school to Eton College.Within weeks of his arrival he was sexually abused by a teacher. The teacher was never charged or even sacked. He died in 2011, a free man. The assault, compounded by the physical and emotional abuse so of

3. Aberlour & Gordonstoun

Jan 07 2025 27 mins

Alex Renton attended three traditional private schools. When he was eight he left home and boarded at Ashdown House, a prep school in East Sussex; a feeder school to Eton College.Within weeks of his arrival he was sexually abused by a teacher. The teacher was never charged or even sacked. He died in 2011, a free man. The assault, compounded by the physical and emotional abuse so of

4. South Africa

Jan 07 2025 27 mins

Journalist Alex Renton attended three traditional private schools. When he was eight he left home and boarded at Ashdown House, where he was sexually abused by a teacher. It wasn't until 2014 that Alex felt able to face his demons. He began writing about his experiences and that's when emails and letters started pouring in from other boarding school survivors, from around the count

1. The List

Jan 07 2025 29 mins

Journalist Alex Renton is shown a secret document, containing the names and addresses of people signed up to a pro-paedophile group called the Paedophile Information Exchange, or PIE, which was active in the 1970s and 80s.That’s not all: weeks after getting the membership list Alex meets a contact who gives him bags full of documents, crammed with reports, contact details, letter

2. They Groom Everyone

Jan 15 2025 29 mins

Alex Renton has letters and documentation passed to him by a secret source. He tries to track down a former member of the defunct pro-paedophile group, the Paedophile Information Exchange, or PIE.He delves into the group's origins and discovers that figures within PIE didn’t just groom the people around them, they attempted to groom whole movements.The group formed in 1974; a tim

3. The Dirty Squad

Jan 22 2025 32 mins

Alex Renton tries to find out more about the notes scribbled in the margins of the PIE membership list. It looks like they were written by police, who were going door to door visiting the members listed in the document. But this active investigation appears to stop suddenly in 1985. Why? Alex starts piecing together the police investigation into the Paedophile Information Exchange.

4. Member 51

Jan 29 2025 30 mins

A social care consultant who advises the government on children in care, is raided by police in 1992. A detective finds evidence linking him to the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE).A local social worker is called in. He and the detective search through seven boxes of documents, brought from the home of the suspect. They discover that not only was he a member of PIE, but a cent

This is In Dark Corners, series 2

Jan 07 2025 3 mins

In 2022, journalist Alex Renton told the story of sexual abuse and cover up in Britain’s elite schools, including his own. After the Radio 4 series aired, his inbox exploded; with people sharing their personal accounts of abuse.Last spring, and anothr email. This one came with an attachment: a scanned copy of a membership list for a pro-paedophile campaign group active in the 197