Paedophile and ex-BBC presenter sent back to prison

A former BBC and ITV presenter who sexually assaulted five girls has been sent back to prison for failing to tell police he had been at a property where there was a child.

Peter Rowell, 67, was jailed for six years in 2012 after admitting 12 indecent assaults involving girls under 16, and making and possessing indecent images.

Rowell, who worked for ITV West before moving to present the afternoon show for BBC Radio Bristol and BBC Radio Somerset in 2010 and 2011, met his victims while DJing for commercial radio station GWR FM in the 1980s.

He has now admitted breaching sex offender notification requirements and was sent back to prison for 24 weeks at Newport Magistrates' Court on 1 April.

Rowell, formerly of the Abergavenny area in Wales, pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to comply with a notification requirement between 1 November 2025 and 26 March this year.

The charges, first reported by the Gazette in Gloucestershire, state Rowell was present at an address where a child resided for more than 12 hours and failed to notify Gwent Police within three days.

At the same court in June last year, Rowell admitted three counts of failing to notify police of being present at an address where a child resided for more than 12 hours. These offences occurred between December 2022 and April 2025.

He further admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order between December 2023 and April 2025 by having unsupervised contact with a girl under the age of 16.

On that occasion he was sentenced to 35 weeks imprisonment suspended for 24 months.

Rowell, originally from Sunderland, worked as a DJ for commercial radio station GWR FM in the late 1980s and 1990s, before joining HTV West, now ITV West Country.

He started presenting his BBC shows in 2010 and sparked a nationwide search after failing to turn up for work in March 2011.

Before his disappearance, police had raided his home and seized his computer, on which detectives found more than 400 indecent images of children.

He later admitted 12 charges of indecent assault against five victims under the age of 16 between 1989 and the early 1990s, six charges of making indecent images and one of possessing indecent images.

Police said a lot of the initial contact with the victims had been made through the GWR FM studios on Bristol's waterfront after the girls had shown interest in the radio station and in Rowell.

Det Insp Jill Kells said at the time: "[Rowell] used very predatory and grooming behaviour to groom them and then offend against them."

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