David Sullivan’s Sunday Sport Published Sexualised Content of 15-Year-Old Girls for Decades

David Sullivan’s Sunday Sport Published Sexualised Content of 15-Year-Old Girls for Decades

David Sullivan, who resigned this weekend as co-chair and director of West Ham United amid sexual misconduct allegations, built a media empire that for more than fifteen years systematically published sexualised images and content featuring girls as young as 15, an examination of his newspapers’ archives reveals.

The Sunday Sport, which Sullivan founded in 1986, ran repeated “countdown” features anticipating the 16th birthdays of teenage girls — the legal age at which they could be photographed topless under the law then in force. The practice continued until 2004, when legislation raised the threshold for indecent imagery to 18.

The Countdown Campaigns

On 6 September 1987, the Sunday Sport began its first documented countdown, targeting 15-year-old Natalie Banus of Hendon, north London, whom it described as “the sexiest 15-year-old in Britain” and “the sexiest Lolita of them all.” The paper published semi-nude images of Banus — her chest obscured only by her arms — while insisting it remained within the law because she was “not quite topless.”

In a memoir published earlier this year, Banus wrote that the Sunday Sport had informed readers she was now “legal,” meaning “anyone who had sex with me no longer had to fear they might be arrested.” She said she wept when she read the pieces published in anticipation of her birthday.

On 3 July 1994, the paper ran a photograph of 15-year-old Linsey Dawn McKenzie in a bikini beneath the headline “Please print my boobs when I’m 16,” specifying she was “15 years, 10 months, three weeks and four days old.” The paper invited readers to submit drawings of how they imagined McKenzie would look topless, and distributed coupons for the edition in which she would “reveal all” on her 16th birthday.

On 17 May 1998, Zoe Parker, 16, appeared topless in the Sunday Sport next to the headline “I’m sweet 16 and I can’t get enough.” Parker had been taken to a pornography fair by her stepfather weeks earlier, where she was scouted. The publication’s coverage led to her expulsion from school. The following year, Parker told the Sunday People she had been coerced into modelling and that the experience had driven her to the brink of suicide. She later alleged that stories about her supposed sexual experiences had been invented at her stepfather’s encouragement.

One of the last such cases was Cherry Frampton of Buckley, north Wales, scouted at 15, who appeared topless in the Sunday Sport on 10 August 2003 under the headline “Happy 16th bare-day.” An advertisement the previous day in the Daily Sport described her as having “just left school.”

Wider Pattern of Exploitation

Beyond the birthday features, the Sport newspapers profited from advertising “barely legal” pornographic videos involving 16-year-old girls well into the 2000s. In 2002, the papers ran promotions for videos described as “incredibly hardcore,” some purportedly featuring girls in school uniforms or filmed having sex for the first time.

The newspapers also operated premium-rate telephone chat lines, reportedly controlled by Sullivan and staffed by some of the models who appeared in his publications.

Seven Women Accuse Sullivan of Sexual Misconduct

Sullivan’s resignation from West Ham followed a joint investigation by BBC Panorama and The Times, in which seven women accused him of sexual misconduct. Three allege he abused his position as owner of the Sport newspapers to coerce them into sex when they sought employment. A further four accuse him of exploitative and predatory behaviour, including alleged attempts to pressure them into sex during business meetings.

The BBC and The Times reported that their journalists spoke to dozens of former models and industry insiders, some of whom alleged Sullivan was known for so-called casting couch behaviour spanning from the 1980s onward, when the women involved were typically in their late teens and early twenties.

Sullivan denied all allegations. Through his lawyers, he stated: “I categorically deny all of these complaints.” He added: “After a lifetime spent building businesses in the adult industry, in which I have met thousands of women, it is sadly inevitable that a small number of improper conduct claims are being made against me.” He did not respond to follow-up queries from the Guardian.

A Career Built on the Sex Industry

Sullivan was born in Cardiff in 1949 and moved to Essex at the age of 11. After graduating in economics from Queen Mary College, University of London, he established a mail-order business selling explicit photographs in the early 1970s, followed by a chain of sex shops and pornographic magazines. By the age of 25, he was a millionaire.

In 1982, Sullivan was convicted of living off the immoral earnings of prostitutes after police raided two London saunas he operated. He was sentenced to nine months in prison, but was released after 71 days following a successful appeal against the length of his sentence.

Allegations about his conduct towards women seeking work in his industry date back to at least the late 1970s. In 1987, former glamour model Vicki Scott told the Sunday People that Sullivan had told her, at approximately 19 years old: “That’s how it is if you want to work with me,” after she refused his sexual advances. In 1981, the News of the World published an account by a woman who said Sullivan had tried to have sex with her during what she believed was a job interview. An undercover reporter for the same paper said Sullivan had invited her to his bedroom and suggested they have sex so he could “judge her performance.”

In July 2008, Sullivan was arrested on suspicion of sexually assaulting a 25-year-old actor at his Essex home. He denied the allegation. After nearly three months, police took no further action following advice from the Crown Prosecution Service.

From Fleet Street to Football

Sullivan launched the Sunday Sport in 1986 and the Daily Sport in 1991. He sold his stake in the Sport titles in 2007 for approximately £40 million, before buying back shares in 2011 in an attempt to rescue the company from administration.

In 1993, Sullivan and business partner David Gold took over Birmingham City Football Club. He appointed 23-year-old Karren Brady — then an advertising executive at the Sport — as managing director. Brady later became a life peer and a prominent television figure. She resigned as West Ham vice-chair in April 2025, severing a decades-long business relationship with Sullivan.

Sullivan and Gold purchased West Ham United in 2010. Under his ownership, the club won the UEFA Conference League in 2023 — its first trophy in 43 years. However, fan dissatisfaction with his stewardship intensified following the club’s relegation from the Premier League last month.

Questions of Accountability

The 2004 legislative change that made it illegal to publish indecent images of under-18s effectively ended Sullivan’s countdown features. Yet for the intervening two decades, his newspapers operated at the legal boundary — and, critics argue, well beyond its ethical limits — in the systematic sexualisation of minors.

Despite his resignation as co-chair and director, Sullivan retains significant financial influence over West Ham as its largest shareholder. His history of operating in the sex industry did not prevent him from reaching the apex of British football, a position that gave him oversight not only of a Premier League club but also its women’s team and youth academy. Whether his remaining stake in the club will prove tenable as the full scope of the new allegations is examined remains an open question.