Two co-owners of the non-league football club Maldon & Tiptree have been charged with human trafficking for sexual exploitation as well as rape after an investigation by Essex police.
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, 57, was charged with multiple offences on Friday alongside Scott Drewitt-Barlow, 32. Both men, of Southwood Chase, Danbury, Essex, will appear at Chelmsford magistrates court later.
The Crown Prosecution Service said the men had been charged with arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation, as well as sexual offences including rape.
Barrie Drewitt-Barlow became Britain’s first gay surrogate parent in 1999. The CPS said he had been charged with three counts of sexual assault on a male, four counts of rape of a man 16 or over and two counts of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation.
Scott Drewitt-Barlow has been charged with one count of sexual assault on a male, one count of rape of a man 16 or over, and two counts of arranging or facilitating travel of another person with a view to exploitation.
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Essex police said officers from the serious crime directorate carried out coordinated searches at premises in Danbury, Maldon and Braintree on Wednesday and arrested two men. The force said that since then they had been liaising with the CPS.
ITV has shelved a planned TV show about the men’s move into football club ownership. A press release on the ITV website published on 31 March and still available online on Friday morning said the six-part series Up the Jammers “follows Barrie and Scott’s pursuit to take the Isthmian League North Division team to the grand heights of the English Football League within four years”.
A quote from Barrie Drewitt-Barlow included in the press release said: “We didn’t get into football to play it safe, we got into it to build something big, and ITV is the perfect platform to bring that story to life. Nothing has been hidden.”
On Friday, an ITV spokesperson said: “ITV has decided to remove Up the Jammers from the upcoming schedule.”