A FORMER Radio One DJ and paedophile who used to live in Poole has been tracked down to Austria by a national newspaper.

Chris Denning, 64, is on the run from police in Britain, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged offences of abusing boys in Surrey between 1969 and 1982.

He and disgraced pop mogul Jonathan King, who has just been released from jail, are said to have preyed on boys at teenage discos at Walton-on-Thames during the 1970s.

In 2000, Denning was accused of leading a paedophile gang in the Czech Republic. He was convicted of eight charges of sexually abusing boys under 15 and corrupting the moral education of 18-year-olds.

Following his release from jail, after serving three and a half years, the Home Office applied for Denning to be extradited to Britain. The request was rejected because under Czech law, suspects can only be returned on charges less than five years old.

Now The Sun newspaper says Denning is living in a small Austrian village and is wanted by police in neighbouring Slovakia for allegedly distributing child pornography. According to the newspaper, he has been seen collecting and dropping off Slovakian boys at an Austrian border town.

Denning's convictions go back to 1959, when he was jailed in Germany for circulating pornographic pictures. In 1967, he was one of the first DJs when Radio One was launched, along with Kenny Everett, John Peel and Jimmy Savile.

After leaving the station, he worked as a music producer with the Beatles and helped launch the careers of the Bay City Rollers and Gary Glitter.

In 1981, Denning opened a shop called Zipprint in Parkstone. The shop contained video games machines and became a magnet for boys and young men. Four years later, a judge at Bournemouth Crown Court jailed him for 12 months, with a further six months suspended, after he admitted a series of indecency offences involving teenage boys.

A Home Office spokeswoman told the Daily Echo: "We don't comment on individual cases."

First published: April 26