Home of self-professed "poster boy for gay surrogacy" Barrie Drewitt-Barlow raided by police due to allegations of rape and human trafficking for sexual exploitation

[ThisZanySeal]

Another surrogacy adjacent news item. The Daily Mail and other outlets are reporting that:

"The home of reality TV star and Britain's first openly gay football club owner Barrie Drewitt-Barlow has been raided by police as part of an investigation into alleged human trafficking for sexual exploitation and rape...Essex Police later confirmed that two men - aged 57 and 32 - were arrested on suspicion of rape, human trafficking for sexual exploitation and administering a noxious substance."

The Family Education Trust summary on X gives the best overview on Barrie's activities over the preceding decades. Text copied for those who don't use X:

"Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, was the first gay man in the UK to buy a child through surrogacy along with his then-partner Tony in 1999 when they paid a woman in California to carry twins.

The pair went to court to be allowed to have same-sex parents on the birth certificates as “parent one” and “parent two” instead of “mother and father”.
He’s now being investigated over alleged human trafficking for sexual exploitation and rape.

Barrie and Tony were interviewed by Stacey Dooley to promote surrogacy. Notice she only asks how surrogacy affects the ‘carrier’, without questioning if it’s in the baby’s best interests to be separated from the mother at birth and sold to two men.

In 2018, their 18 year old daughter Saffron announced that she wanted twins via a surrogate and would donate any 'spare' embryos to her fathers, who were ‘desperate for more children’. They already had 5 children all born to surrogate mothers.

In 2020, Barrie split up with Tony and got together with his daughter Saffron’s 25 year old ex-boyfriend. They then announced they were ‘expecting triplets’ via another surrogate after interviewing 15 egg donors.

Drewitt-Barlow now has eight children by surrogacy. He admitted on Dooley’s documentary to paying a model £50k to carry a child because “Nobody wants an ugly kid”, glossing over the serious health risks of egg donation.

Ban surrogacy!"

Barrie and Tony set up The British Surrogacy Centre back in 2011.

I personally have a memory of one of them (I think it was Barrie) in one of the documentaries about their journey to become fathers via surrogacy for a second time, where he made gagging noises when discussion came up about whether their surrogate would give birth vaginally. He couldn't hold back his revulsion about the female form even in front of the cameras. I was quite young back when I saw that documentary but it has stuck in my head ever since.

If he’s that awful in public, imagine the situation behind closed doors. Those poor kids.

“The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Barrie Drewitt-Barlow has 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.”

So I think the trafficking young men (rather than the kids) theory is more likely to be accurate. But we'll see. Either way he still sounds like this rank misogynist is vile and physically & verbally abusive to the kids, his staff and others and highly inappropriate.

And he’s the child safeguarding officer at the club!

technically of course, Aspen is the actual legal owner (as he’s banned from being a director) & there is no evidence he is involved in anything. In fact it sounds like he’s a victim.

Thanks for the tag @Whosagoodboyit’s been a while!

There’s a whole archive on this family and reading the thread a lot has been covered already (the dodgy research company, forced c-sections etc). Oddly I’d say that Saffron receives the most ‘airtime’ and Barrie praises her publicly but as the oldest girl, followed by many commissioned boys, I have wondered how she has faired in the family. (After claiming to want to have children through surrogacy herself, and receiving a bollocking from Barry live on air, she has given birth to two children).

All I’ll add is that Colin is the eldest and I believe that Barrie has donated sperm so probably has other children.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/gay-dad-spent-250k-surrogate-437797.amp

Rosalind Bellamy, mother of the oldest twins, was dumped unceremoniously days after birth over a dispute of over money I believe. I wonder what she and Tracy McClune make of all this - Tracy donated her eggs for Saffron and Aspen and Orlando to be conceived (same batch of embryos, Tony fathered Aspen, Barrie fathered Saffron and the embryo implantation into Rosalind was based on sex so they could parent one of each.)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/560810.stm

They have harmed so many people and in my view Tony is complicit at best.

https://www.dailymail.com/lifestyle/article-2895772/Surrogate-fathers-tore-life-apart-Used-abused-called-trailer-trash-UK-poster-boys-gay-fatherhood-turned-woman-hired-womb.html

How on earth has this man got away with this atrocious behaviour for so long?

How many times are we to ask this question of so many men?

We have been groomed to ignore our instincts/suspicions lest we be labelled prudes, bigots or some kind of -phobe.

Yes Colin was apparently the product of a one night stand between Barrie and a woman (which seems unlikely) when he was 21. I think they’d already had their twins before they found out about Colin. Colin has served at least one jail sentence for driving offences and perjury.
I reckon Saffron gets the most airtime because she’s the only one biologically related to Barrie and he’s a narcissist so he sees her as an extension of himself but is constantly pointing out how she is lacking in every way (looks, weight, charisma). Hopefully her partner/husband isn’t another abuser like her dad. She seems nice but lacking in self esteem, understandably.
While Tony is not abusive himself he is an enabler and he has allowed his kids to live in an environment with a violent sociopath rather than protecting them and is also to blame.
Scott has been with Barrie since at least 2013 so by my calculations he was 19 at the time and was likely groomed. No excuse for his vile actions now though.
The fact that they have been held up as some wonderful progressive family is stomach-turning.

I think Barrie can (could) be a director again now. It was an 8 year ban in 2010 iirc. But he's not been listed on companies house as being an officer for any of the companies they've set up since moving back to the UK.

Thanks OhHolyJesus for the info. I wasn't sure if you were still around but I saw your name pop up a few times when I did an advanced search.

I also found this article from one of Caroline Farrow's blog posts reporting on the MRHA prosecuting the Drewitt-Barlows back in 2011 for fabricating clinical trial results and lying to ethics committees. I have no idea what the outcome of this trial was.

https://www.dailymail.com/news/article-2044805/Millionaire-gay-couple-Barrie-Tony-Drewitt-Barlow-facing-court-breaching-clinical-trial-regulations.html

Julia Bindel has published an article in The Spectator today:

https://spectator.com/article/barrie-drewitt-barlow-and-the-commodification-of-surrogacy/

"The last time I bumped into Drewitt-Barlow was at a lesbian and gay fundraising event in 2014, he was talking about how lesbians are ‘fat and ugly’, and saying he would never buy an egg from one."

Here is the Archive version to evade the Spectator paywall

https://archive.ph/ZgAU3

Thanks for sharing that. It is almost unbelievable how awful these people are, even discounting the crimes they're accused of, their attitudes as evidenced by their own speech and behaviour, are a disgrace.

That's horrific. I'm glad we're finally starting to have conversations about the ethics of the fertility trade. (For want of a better term.)

There's a lot in these articles that makes me concerned about Saffron in particular. Almost everything that's been posted here reads as a red flag for trafficking. Being a beard for her father's lover as a teenager? Her father saying she goes on "lots of dates", but her saying she's not enjoying it? That whole thing where she started talking about having kids through surrogacy herself as soon as she turned 18, and donating the spare embryos to her father, was profoundly disturbing. That reeks of coercion to me. As if she knew her father was planning to exploit her for her womb, and hoped she could get away with "just" donating her eggs to him instead.

Barrie reads less like a father to this girl, and more like some threatening pimp. I hope I'm wrong, but can't shake the horrible feeling there's more to her story.

This is vile. I couldn’t read all the details. I hope this wakes up some people.

It is important to challenge the term LGBTQ+ whenever you hear it. Especially challenge it when “community” is added.

Please say, “What do you mean?” “There is no community”. Do you mean a gay man? Etc.

I think this is one of those scenarios where the words ‘Shocked, shocked I tell you’ are most appropriate.

That was in response to
https://www.transgendertrend.com/lgbtq-pride-safeguarding-scandal/

which a pp had linked on page 1 of this thread.

There have been two additional arrests and charges in this case:

• Richard Howard-Smith - Barrie's "manservant" in the Stacey Dooley Sleeps Over episode (Series 6 Episode 2, available on 4oD), vice-chair at Maldon & Tiptree FC, and Maldon town councillor

• Eldred Reames - Caroline Farrow is reporting that he was one of Barrie's dog groomers

Both lived in the compound that was raided when Barrie and Scott were arrested. Barrie and Scott are next in court on the 5th of June.

Thank you @Whosagoodboy for the update.

Just to keep a record for the thread timeline, the full statement from Essex Police on 23 May 2026 was:

"Two more people have been charged as part of an investigation into human trafficking for sexual exploitation, rape and other sexual offences.
Both men were arrested on Thursday 21 May and have been questioned on suspicion of a number of offences.

We have now been authorised by the Crown Prosecution Service to charge two men with multiple offences including rape and sexual assault.

Richard Howard-Smith, 35, and Eldred Reames, 24, both of Southwood Chase, Danbury, have been remanded into custody to appear at Chelmsford Magistrates’ Court on Saturday 23 May.

This investigation has already seen two other men charged.

57-year-old Barrie Drewitt-Barlow and 32-year-old Scott Drewitt-Barlow, both of Southwood Chase, Danbury, are due to appear at Chelmsford Crown Court on 5 June and will remain in custody until then."