Julie Wadsworth (formerly Julie Moulds) is seen posing in the Leicester Trader in December 1979

Dressed in nothing but a bikini top decorated with a strip of tinsel, Julie Wadsworth poses next to a Christmas tree for a newspaper glamour girl competition. The year is 1979 and the 22-year-old go-go dancer appears to be entirely confident in her own skin.

Which, given what was claimed during her trial last week, is something of a surprise. In court she and her husband Tony both painted a picture of a woman so self-conscious she would not dare sunbathe topless.

And that self-consciousness, they would claim, stemmed from her relationship with Sean Hegarty, with whom she had a child and from whom she split in 1977 — two years before that glamour photo.

She alleged that Mr Hegarty had been physically abusive towards her. As a result of that abuse, it was said she had become insecure about her looks and her body.

Indeed, Mr Wadsworth went so far as to try to justify their seedy sexual encounters with teenage boys by claiming he sanctioned them in the hope they would prove to her how attractive she really was to others.

‘Because of Julie’s past history with an abusive partner I think it’s fair to say that Julie was and to some extent still is a damaged person today,’ he told the jury. ‘She was not confident in her appearance, and certainly not confident in her body.’

The dalliances were ‘positive’, he said, because they made her feel ‘empowered as a woman’.

By any standards it was an extraordinary defence.

Particularly given that 58-year-old Mr Hegarty, speaking exclusively to The Daily Mail, today denies that he was ever violent towards her during their two-year relationship. Those denials will bring further scrutiny on to the couple’s case, which unravelled spectacularly during the trial.

Example after example has emerged of the 60-year-old’s willingness to flaunt her gym-honed, surgically-enhanced body at the slightest opportunity.

As well as that glamour shot, there were pictures of her posing in a pair of hot pants for a racy fashion shoot for a different paper, and another that showed her semi-naked on the front cover of a BBC radio magazine under a headline that read: ‘Temptress’.

Example after example has emerged of the 60-year-old’s willingness to flaunt her gym-honed, surgically-enhanced body at the slightest opportunity

Then there was the time she posed for a charity calendar, re-imagining the famous Lady Godiva pose, dressed in a nude body-stocking and sitting astride a white horse.

Another shot showed her apparently nude in a giant golf bag. Videos seized from the couple’s home by police included one shot by Mr Wadsworth up his wife’s skirt and another zooming in on her breasts as she sunbathed topless on a beach. Hardly the behaviour of a shrinking violet — but then Mrs Wadsworth never was one. Fiercely ambitious, she broke up her husband’s first marriage and having bagged him also bagged herself the sort of high-profile job she had always dreamed of.

She was, by Mr Wadsworth’s own admission, ‘high maintenance, possessive and jealous’.

Indeed, what emerges is a picture of a woman who always got what she wanted, whether that was a husband, a career or teenage boys to satisfy her sick fantasies.

‘There’s no doubt that she was the dominant character in their relationship,’ was the way one acquaintance put it last week. ‘She called the shots and he followed her around like a little lamb.’

One of four siblings, Julie Moulds was raised in a broken home in a council house in Leicester. As a girl she landed a part in a local pantomime and, pushed by her seamstress mum, from then on dreamed of seeing her name in lights.

Aged 18 she was indeed treading the boards, albeit as a go-go dancer at Baileys nightclub in Leicester. There she met Mr Hegarty, the stage manager.

‘She wasn’t ashamed of her body then,’ said Mr Hegarty, who lives in Stoke-on-Trent and is married with two children. ‘She’d stand in front of 700 people dancing on a podium, in very revealing clothing.’ The pair quickly started dating.

‘We were 18-year-olds who were mad about each other,’ he said. ‘We enjoyed a great sex life. We’d have sex in my Ford Escort wherever we could, around the back of buildings, lanes or alleyways.

‘Sometimes we’d do it in the car outside the terrace house where Julie lived with her mum and sister. That was driven by her, she seemed to get a big thrill out of it.’

Mr Hegarty says he forgave her because she was his first love and he was besotted. Having met in 1976, the following year their son Simon was born. They split up soon afterwards, Julie telling her boyfriend she wanted to raise the child on her own.

Although she did not identify him by name, she would allege in court that the father of her child had been violent towards her. ‘It was a very violent and abusive relationship — both physically and mentally abusive,’ said Mrs Wadsworth.

One of four siblings, Julie Moulds was raised in a broken home in a council house in Leicester and dreamed of stardom

Mr Hegarty categorically denies this is the case and is now taking legal advice. He says that the reason they split was because they were ‘young and immature’ and that his job meant him moving around the country.

He lost contact with his son, he says, because she prevented him from seeing him — but received a phone call out of the blue from Mrs Wadsworth in the Nineties.

‘She’d got my number from a mutual friend,’ says Mr Hegarty. ‘We talked about this and that and then suddenly she says, referring to the old days: “You know, Sean, we used to have the most fantastic sex, didn’t we?”

‘It was such an odd thing to say — it stuck with me to this day.’ While Mr Hegarty does indeed remember Mrs Wadsworth as an enthusiastic partner — like ‘a rabbit’ is the way he rather bluntly puts it — he thought it strange for her to have brought it up after all those years.

All the more so now, given the nature of the accusations she levelled against him during the trial.

A single mum, it was not until the mid-Eighties, then in her late 20s, that she met Mr Wadsworth, who is almost ten years her senior.

By then she was working at the Haymarket Theatre in Leicester looking after the wardrobe department. He needed a costume for an outside broadcast and came in to see if they had something.

In the mid-Eighties, the then-Miss Moulds met Tony Wadsworth and the pair hit it off. Mr Wadsworth encouraged her to try out for radio and became her 'mentor'

The son of a fishing tackle shop owner, Mr Wadsworth’s career was flourishing. He had presented shows at both BBC Radio Leicester and BBC Radio WM, where he went on to join the management team. From the BBC WM studios at Pebble Mill in Birmingham he would in time present all the mainstream programmes.

On the domestic front, Mr Wadsworth had been married for almost 20 years and had two teenage children. Meeting his wife-to-be, he was attracted not just by her bubbly personality but her ‘backside’ as well (or so he would reveal in a subsequent interview).

The pair hit it off. Mr Wadsworth encouraged her to try out for radio and became her ‘mentor’.

After freelancing for the BBC, she would go on to join Mr Wadsworth behind the microphone as a double act, broadcasting under the name Julie Mayer. It wasn’t long before their true feelings emerged, with her making all the running. ‘The point came in 1989, when I was in Egypt, and determined to use the time to get away from Julie, to think,’ he told the Leicester Mercury.

‘I was travelling the country and at every hotel I went to, there was a message from Julie Mayer at the BBC. ‘She just wouldn’t take no for an answer. It was like being dragged into a vortex, I was hanging on by my fingernails. When I arrived back in Leicester, I’d made my mind up it was over. And then I saw her.’

In a scene worthy of Alan Partridge, the fictional Norwich-based radio DJ played by comedian Steve Coogan, Mr Wadsworth sent her a message from his computer asking her to marry him. She accepted.

The couple set up home in the village of Atherstone in Warwickshire, moving in to a house called Knob Hall, holding their wedding reception there in 1994

As well as worrying about the anguish the split would cause to his wife and children, Wadsworth was concerned about their age gap. ‘There’s almost ten years between us and I needed Julie to be aware I’m quite the pipe and slippers kind of guy,’ he would recall. ‘She said she’d got all that young stuff out of her system anyway.’

Future events would firmly contradict that. The couple set up home in the village of Atherstone in Warwickshire, moving in to a house called Knob Hall, holding their wedding reception there in 1994.

They later moved to another property in the village where Mr Wadsworth invited a local architect to have a look round and draw up plans for renovations.

‘When we went upstairs and he showed me into the master bedroom I felt very uncomfortable because there were at least six or seven big full-length photographs of Julie posing naked on the walls,’ the architect told the Mail.

‘I didn’t know who it was until I asked him and he said: “It’s the wife.” He looked really pleased with himself but I just thought it was inappropriate to be letting a complete stranger look at them. I never went back to the house — there was just something that didn’t feel right.’

Between 1992 and 1996 the couple would indulge their more perverted fantasies, which included frequenting an area of woodland bordering Atherstone Golf Course

And it was around this time — between 1992 and 1996 — that the couple would indulge their more perverted fantasies. As well as being seen having sex in a car near to a school, locations they frequented included an area of woodland bordering Atherstone Golf Course.

There, in September 1992, one boy, now in his 30s, told the court how he and his friends went to investigate after being told there was a ‘woman with no knickers on’ in the woods.

‘We had never seen anything like it before,’ he said. ‘They knew we were looking and it was obvious she didn’t have any knickers on because she had a split skirt on and you could see. They were just laughing and giggling. They wanted us to see them, that’s how it felt.’

He said Mrs Wadsworth beckoned them in and the couple started having sex against a tree.

During their extensive careers working for BBC radio, the Wadsworths cultivated a 'saucy' Carry On film-style image

He added: ‘They said if we came back next week they might let us have a play.’

The following week he and another boy returned. Mrs Wadsworth was there dressed in a ‘flasher’s mac’, with stockings and suspenders and no underwear. The boys were invited to join her in the woods one at a time. When the second one took his turn he found Mrs Wadsworth sitting on her coat topless in white stockings and suspenders. Her husband was there with a camera around his neck.

The victim told the court: ‘I said “I’m not doing anything while there is a camera there.” She told him [Wadsworth] to go for a walk and she told me to sit down next to her. She started touching me and encouraged me to touch her.’

On a different occasion, Mrs Wadsworth propositioned a boy by lifting up her skirt in the woods to show her knickers and shouted: ‘Do you want to have a play with this?’

Another youth told how Mrs Wadsworth took his virginity in 1995 when aged just 14 after he witnessed her sunbathing topless. She told him to ‘come and have a closer look’ but because it was his tea-time he went home.

Two days later they met in woods at a park in Atherstone where they performed sex acts on each other as her husband watched.

The witness said a month or so later he went up to the woods on his own while playing golf. He hit his ball into the rough.

‘I hit my ball down to a tree they called the Witches’ Cauldron,’ he said. ‘I don’t know where she came from but she said: “If you want your ball back you will have to come and get it.” ’

In September 1992, one boy, now in his 30s, told the court how he and his friends went to investigate after being told there was a ‘woman with no knickers on’ in the woods

When he was older he would be invited to their home on a number of occasions where it was claimed he had sex on up to 15 occasions, even once taking part in a threesome with the couple.

The man, now 36, said he fancied the presenter because she was attractive and spoke ‘really posh’. But he claimed after sex he was left feeling ‘weird and ashamed’ and like ‘a dirty pervert’.

He finally reported what had happened to him to police in 2015 after attending a child protection course for his job and realised that he had been ‘groomed’ as a child.

He gave officers the names of friends he had gone to the woods with. Following this, the couple were charged, after which the earlier group of boys came forward.

‘I didn’t talk to anyone about it because I felt ashamed, I didn’t want anyone thinking I was dirty or a pervert. She shouldn’t have taken my virginity in that sort of situation. That is why I have come forward.’

Tony and Julie Wadsworth were convicted by a majority verdict of encouraging a string of boys to take part in sexual activity in Warwickshire between 1992 and 1996

In her defence, Mrs Wadsworth admitted that she had met one of the youths when he had been spying on her and her husband as they petted in the undergrowth.

She described to the court how the youth — who she insisted was 17 years old — approached the couple with his hands down his trousers. ‘Flattered’ by his interest, she allowed him to ‘grope her bosom’ while she ‘just finished off what he was doing’.

She claimed that after bumping in to him at a garden centre, he came to their house and helped out with gardening where there was limited sexual contact.

On a later occasion she admitted taking part in mutual masturbation in the wood with two other boys, who she claimed were 17.

Defending her version of events, Mrs Wadsworth told the court: ‘I did not consider it illegal to have sex with my husband or for consenting adults to have sex in the woods. We are the victims here but not in the sense of a victim. But in the sense that we are being portrayed as abusers of young men.’

A portrayal that, after hearing the Wadsworths’ fanciful explanation, the jury clearly did not find at all convincing.

BBC DJ enjoyed having sex in my car outside her mother's house, says her teenage sweetheart as he claims she went back to a hotel with a pop star



By Andy Dolan for The Daily Mail

Julie Wadsworth’s teenage sweetheart yesterday told how she enjoyed romping in his car outside her own mother’s house – because she found the risk of getting caught a ‘thrill’.

Sean Hegarty, 58, told how he met the then Julie Moulds when she was a club go-go dancer at a nightspot where he acted as stage manager when both were just 18.

Yesterday Mr Hegarty said the ‘highly sexed’ trained dancer took his virginity during a whirlwind relationship that saw her conceive their son, Simon, within a matter of months.

Julie Wadsworth’s teenage sweetheart Sean Hegarty has revealed how she enjoyed romping in his car outside her own mother’s house

But within two years the relationship floundered as his ‘possessive’ lover struggled to cope with work commitments which would take him around the country for stints at other nightclubs.

Yesterday he recalled how just weeks into their relationship, go-go dancer Julie went back to a hotel with a pop star after a night dancing on stage at Bailey’s nightclub in Leicester.

The singer had apparently gone into the club with an entourage after performing at a nearby venue in the city.

Mr Hegarty said his girlfriend readily admitted going to the city’s Holiday Inn with the singer, who was married at the time.

He added: ‘She told me she was given a drink in the bar, then he went to his room and sent a roadie back down to get her.

‘Julie just said she went to the hotel because she was asked. But in the hotel room she said the singer couldn’t even be bothered to take off her trousers before having sex with her.

He has recalled how just weeks into their relationship, go-go dancer Julie went back to a hotel with a pop star after a night dancing on stage at Bailey’s nightclub in Leicester

‘I’ll always remember this – she told me he got one of the legs of her trousers off her. Then when he was finished he told her she could go. I remember what the trousers were – a slim fit blue pair she always used to wear.’

A spokesman for the pop star has not returned the Daily Mail’s requests for comment on the incident.

Mr Hegarty, who was once asked to tour America with the Four Tops and the Three Degrees as a lighting engineer, said he forgave her because she was his first love and he was besotted.

He added: ‘We were 18-year-olds who were mad about each other. We enjoyed a great sex life.

‘We’d have sex in my Ford Escort wherever we could, around the back of buildings, lanes or alleyways.

‘Not long before we split we ended up moving into a flat, but at first we both lived at home so we did it wherever we could get the opportunity.

‘Sometimes we’d do it in the car outside the terrace house where Julie lived with her mum and sister. That was driven by her, she seemed to get a big thrill out of it. She was sex mad.’

Mr Hegarty, from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire, recalled one occasion when the amorous couple took the chance to get intimate in his bedroom while his mother was out.

He said: 'We’d have sex in my Ford Escort wherever we could, around the back of buildings, lanes or alleyways'

Mr Hegarty added: 'Sometimes we’d do it in the car outside the terrace house where Julie lived with her mum and sister.'

He added: ‘We were leaving the house just as she came home. My mum came charging out after us a couple of minutes later – she’d found Julie’s red knickers in my bed.

‘Mum began grabbing at Julie’s hair in the street, calling her all sorts of names. Julie screamed back: ‘It takes one to know one’ and then ran off up the road.’

He added: ‘She was very, very possessive. I remember finishing work one morning in the middle of winter at about 4am.

‘There was snow on the ground of the car park but when I got back to my vehicle Julie was sat on the bonnet. It was freezing and she was pregnant at the time, but she did it to see if she could catch me with another woman.’

The couple met in 1976 and Simon was born the following summer.

Mr Hegarty, who went on to become an electrical engineer, said their relationship began to falter during the pregnancy as he found himself increasingly being moved around Bailey’s nightclub venues up and down the country.

The pair split up in 1977 and she married Tony Wadsworth in 1994 after the pair met while she was working at the Haymarket Theatre

He remembered Julie also becoming annoyed when he refused to quit work to help her set up a dance school with her sister, Barbara, who would also go on to be a local BBC radio presenter.

While Mr Hegarty was working at a Bailey’s club in Derby, Julie took a job at the Adam and Eve club in Leicester.

When they eventually parted, she told him she wanted to raise the baby alone. Mr Hegarty last saw their son at the age of one during a walk to the park.

He later discovered through a family friend that his son had been led to believe Mr Hegarty was a ‘bad man’ who wanted nothing more to do with his child.

In 1979, two years after the child’s birth, Julie and her late mother amended the birth certificate, changing her son’s surname to match her maiden name of Moulds and revoking Mr Hegarty’s status as father on the birth certificate – details he says he only discovered when informed by the Daily Mail.

Mr Hegarty said he has not seen Julie since they split up in 1977.