Actor Robert Emms stars as Ray Teret in the new BBC drama The Reckoning, the ‘adopted son’ of Jimmy Savile.
The four-part series dramatises Jimmy’s disgusting history of abuse, and shines a light on his sinister accomplices – including Ray Teret, and the Mayor of Scarborough Peter Jaconelli.
So who was Ray Teret, where is he now, and what was his relationship with Jim’ll Fix It star Jimmy Savile?
Did Jimmy Savile have a son? Who was Ray Teret?
Abuser Jimmy Savile referred to Ray Teret as his “adopted son” and made the younger man call him “Father”.
In fact, Jimmy Savile had no children. Ray was more like Jimmy’s protégé. They lived together as flatmates, and Jimmy often made Ray do his dirty work. He worked as Jimmy’s personal chauffeur, and general dogsbody, as well as DJing alongside him.
Salisbury-born Ray Teret started his career in the 1960s. After working as a warehouse clerk, apprentice heating engineer and waiter at the Ritz Ballroom in Manchester, Ray met Jimmy Savile in the early 1960s. Ray had won 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. Ray Teret subsequently became Savile’s support DJ, assistant and chauffeur. As The Reckoning suggests, the pair worked together to abuse young, often underage, girls.
When Jimmy Savile started working for the BBC on shows such as Top of the Pops, their relationship stalled. However, Ray Teret continued to work as a DJ. He joined Radio Caroline North in the mid-1960s, where he became known as ‘Ugli’ Ray Teret.
Was Ray Teret a paedophile?
Tragically, Ray also raped and assaulted many girls. Like Jimmy, Ray used his celebrity status in the Manchester club scene in the 1960s and 1970s to prey on many of his victims.
In 1999, when he was 58 years old, Ray Teret was found guilty of unlawful sex with a 15-year-old girl.
More than a decade later, in November 2012, Greater Manchester Police police arrested Ray Teret at his home on Woodlands Road in Altrincham. This was one of two arrests made in connection with an allegation of historic rape against children.
In October 2014, Ray Teret appeared at Minshull Street Crown Court 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 Ray Teret and Jimmy Savile together. Two other men, William Harper and Alan Ledger, were also charged, and were tried alongside Ray Teret.
In 2014, he was eventually found guilty of seven rapes and 11 indecent assaults on girls as young as 13. At the time, Ray Teret told the jury he had no interest in underage girls, despite a previous conviction for sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl in 1999.
However, the judge acquitted Ray Teret of assisting Jimmy Savile to rape an alleged victim, but was found guilty of raping the same complainant himself. Ray was sentenced to 25 years in prison.
A lawyer for 169 of Savile’s victims later stated that Ray Teret’s conviction represents “the closest the victims of Jimmy Savile will get to a conviction against their attacker”.
Where is Jimmy Saville friend Ray Teret now?
Ray Teret died in prison on May 5 2021, following a battle with cancer. He was 79 years of age, and had served just over six years behind bars for his crimes.
The paedophile and rapist ex-DJ died on the medical wing at HMP Manchester, commonly referred to as Strangeways prison.
An inquest at Manchester Coroners Court later heard that Ray Teret had been diagnosed with terminal bowel cancer while in prison. His condition worsened and he had been receiving palliative care.
The Reckoning is available to watch on BBC iPlayer from Monday, October 09, 2023 at 9pm.
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