Peter Rowell (Image: Gwent Police)
Last Updated: 3 minutes ago
A convicted child sex offender who previously worked as a broadcaster for the BBC and ITV has been returned to prison after admitting he failed to inform police about his presence at a property where a child was living.
Background
Peter Rowell, 67, originally from Sunderland and formerly of the Abergavenny area, was handed a six-year prison sentence in 2012 for a string of sexual offences against children. He had pleaded guilty to 12 counts of indecent assault involving five girls under the age of 16, committed between 1989 and the early 1990s, along with six charges of making indecent images and one of possessing them.
His offending came to light after officers raided his home and discovered more than 400 indecent images of children on his computer. At the time, Det Insp Jill Kells said: “[Rowell] used very predatory and grooming behaviour to groom them and then offend against them.”
Career and victims
Rowell had worked as a DJ for commercial radio station GWR FM during the late 1980s and 1990s, where he first made contact with his victims. Police said much of the initial contact with the girls had been made through the station’s studios on Bristol’s waterfront after they had shown interest in the radio station and in Rowell himself.
He later moved into television at HTV West, now ITV West Country, before taking up presenting roles on BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Somerset in 2010 and 2011. He triggered a nationwide search after failing to turn up for his BBC show in March 2011.
Previous breaches
Rowell had already appeared before Newport Magistrates’ Court in June last year, where he admitted three counts of failing to notify police of his presence at an address where a child lived for more than 12 hours. Those offences took place between December 2022 and April 2025.
At the same hearing, he also admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order between December 2023 and April 2025 by having unsupervised contact with a girl under 16. He was sentenced to 35 weeks’ imprisonment suspended for 24 months on that occasion.
Latest breach
Despite the suspended sentence, Rowell has now admitted two further counts of failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements, as first reported by the Gazette in Gloucestershire. The offences were committed between 1 November 2025 and 26 March this year, and involved him being present at a property where a child resided for more than 12 hours without notifying Gwent Police within the required three-day period.
He was sentenced to 24 weeks in prison at Newport Magistrates’ Court on 1 April.
