Jimmy Savile’s paedophile former chauffeur ‘Ugli’ Ray Teret who raped ‘star-struck’ girls dies in prison, aged 79, after battling cancer
- DJ Ray Teret, 79, was mentored by prolific paedophile Jimmy Savile in the 1960s
- He used his celebrity status to prey on dozens of girls as young as 13 for years
- Found guilty of seven rapes and 11 assaults he was jailed for life in 2014
- Teret had been battling cancer when he was found dead in his prison cell today
Jimmy Savile’s paedophile chauffeur who raped and assaulted several girls has died in prison following a battle with cancer.
Ray Teret, 79, had been serving a life sentence at HMP Manchester ‘Strangeways’ and was last year struck down by coronavirus.
It has been reported that he was found dead in his cell this morning by prison staff. His cause of death is not yet known.
Teret, a former Radio Caroline DJ who had nicknames including The Rat and ‘Ugli Ray’, was mentored by Savile in the 1960s.
The pair became so close that people referred to Teret as Savile’s ‘shadow’ and is reported to have driven the star in 1960s, a claim he denied.
Ray Teret, 73, had been serving a life sentence at HMP Manchester ‘Strangeways’ and last year had been struck down by coronavirus
He used his celebrity status in the Manchester club scene in the 1960s and 1970s to prey on many of his victims.
In 2014 he was found guilty of seven rapes and 11 indecent assaults on girls as young as 13.
Teret told the jury at the time he had no interest in underage girls, despite a previous conviction for sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl in 1999, an offence he continued to deny.
A prison service spokeswoman said: ‘HMP Manchester prisoner Ray Teret died in prison on May 5.
‘The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has been informed.’
Teret, a former Radio Caroline DJ who had nicknames including The Rat and ‘Ugli Ray’, was mentored by Savile in the 1960s. Pictured from left: Savile and Teret at an event in the 1970s
Teret is believed to have first met Savile in the late 1950s at a singing contest at a Manchester ballroom.
Teret went on to become a waiter at The Ritz ballroom in Manchester city centre in the early 1960s and it was there that he met Savile again, who remembered him as ‘The Singer’.
He was then offered a job at his Jimmy Savile Disc Club in Higher Broughton.
Teret said: ‘He explained how to count the beats on the record, the tempo. How to project to the back of the hall rather than shouting, things like that.
‘He told me to do the first hour, which was nerve-racking. I was learning to be a disc jockey.’
Eight months later he cut ties with Savile, he claimed, and went on to host his own DJ nights at the Beat City cellar club in Manchester.
He said he gained his ‘Ugli Ray’ nickname at Radio Caroline’s opening party when he was asked on stage what he would prefer to be called.
In 1965 he landed a job at pirate station Radio Caroline – his signature tune being Jungle Fever by The Tornados.
He said he gained his ‘Ugli Ray’ nickname at the station’s opening party when he was asked on stage what he would prefer to be called.
He said: ‘I said ‘call me ugli’. That is what my mother called me. ‘Come in ugli’, that is what she would say.’
It led to him sporting a gold bracelet with the word emblazoned on it – which he proudly told the court he has worn up to this day.
He then opened up a clothes boutique in the Isle of Man then, in 1970 and back in Manchester, he set up his own DJing business with his father.
Teret used his celebrity status in the Manchester club scene in the 1960s and 1970s to prey on many of his victims. Pictured: DJ Teret with The Beatles
He also helped run a music shop in south Manchester and was a presenter on the city’s Radio Piccadilly.
His regional fame grew and he drove luxury cars with personalised number plates.
Teret claimed he was not in regular contact with Savile from the mid-60s to the end of the 70s and said Savile never phoned him personally in that period.
He said: ‘He disappeared from Manchester and went back to Leeds. On an odd occasion when he came over I got a message saying Savile is going to be at the fire station or at the town hall or wherever and would you meet him, and I went.’
Asked about a photograph of himself sitting next to Savile in deckchairs, he denied it was a holiday snap.