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BBC paedophiles Tony and Julie Wadsworth hid their shameful secrets to run children’s awards.

They organised Tony and Julie’s Children of Merit honours in 2001 for kids who had “shown great courage or exceptional kindness”.

Also helping conceal their earlier abuse of young boys has been Tony, 69, playing charity gigs nationwide in a Beatles tribute band since 2011.

Our exclusive photo shows the disgraced DJ in a wig and ’60s garb strumming guitar in Leicester tribute act The UpBeatles.

Wife Julie, 60, dances below him, the audience little realising the couple’s sordid past as abusers of boys as young as 12.

This week they were each jailed for five years for indecently assaulting young boys in Warwickshire between 1992 and 1996.

A source said: “To the outside world they were do-gooders. You would never guess that they were paedophiles.”

Another added: “You’d be hard pressed to find two people less suitable to hand out awards to kids.”

The couple ran “Tony and Julie’s Children of Merit” from the BBC’s Pebble Mill studio in Birmingham.

(Image: SWNS)

Launching their search, DJ Julie said: “These awards will celebrate the achievements of Midland children who have triumphed in the face of adversity or demonstrated courage and bravery in their reaction to events.”

They ran a hunt for the West Midlands’ 10 bravest children, handing each a silver medal donated by the Birmingham Mint.

A further 1,000 “Tony and Julie medals” were sold to raise charity cash.

The awards were among scores of kids charity projects the Wadsworths took part in during their years at the BBC. In 2007 they put charity wristbands on kids at Birstall cricket club, Leicester.

(Image: SWNS)

In 2014 they mingled with terminally ill youngsters at the 20th birthday of Rainbows Children’s Hospice, in Loughborough.

Our picture of Julie in pink boots and minidress was taken in 2012 at a gig in Rothley, near Leicester, to aid the Motor Neurone Disease Association.

In a 2013 interview before their 20th wedding anniversary, Julie revealed she once dressed Tony in children’s clothes because he is 5ft 6in.

She also said she had hoped to win his approval by having a breast enhancement op to get what she called her “Baywatch boobs”.

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She said: “I felt like a little girl – and I just happened to be married to a man who likes big ones.”

Tony said of Julie: “I was rather attracted to her backside. Seriously though, I was most attracted to her personality. She’s bright and bubbly – most of the time – she has that quality. She also treads where angels fear to.”

A BBC spokesman said: “We are appalled by the crimes, which are unconnected to their BBC work. They are no longer employed by the BBC and haven’t been on-air since 2015.”