Rob Mulholland uses shamed comic Tom Binns as his publicity image

Rule one of advertising your Edinburgh Fringe show is to use an eye-catching image – and Rob Mulholland has certainly done that.

For the stand-up is using a picture not of himself, but of Tom Binns – the comedian and convicted sex offender who was found to have had more than 35,000 indecent pictures of children on his devices.

Mulholland, inset, successfully submitted an image of Binns in his guise of spoof hospital DJ Ivan Brackenbury to both the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Society for the event’s official programme and website, and for his venue Just The Tonic.

Here it is on the edfringe.com website, advertising his show Allegations:

And here it is in the Just The Tonic brochure:

Mulholland told Chortle: ''At the time of uploading my show blurb for the edfringe website I was addicted to a new type of ADHD medication, which couple with my OCD, led to me downloading and then deleting thousands of pictures of Tom Binns that I didn't want. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a fan of musical comedy.'

And posting on X he said: ‘This bit is going so much better than I could have ever imagined.’

Last year, Binns, 54, was given a ten-month prison term, suspended for 15 months, after he admitted five counts of making and one of possessing indecent images of children. He was also placed on the sex offender register for 10 years.

Passing sentence, Judge Smith acknowledged Binns found the images he downloaded ‘sickening’ and reminded him: ‘This kind of material has real victims.’

Binns, who previously had a BBC sitcom based around his Brackenbury character, told Chortle at the time: 'Over two years ago, while under the influence of an overdose of prescription drugs for ADHD, which induced obsessive compulsive disorder, I downloaded and deleted a very large amount of adult pornography over a short period of time. Within those downloads it appears there was some child pornography which I had not sought out nor wanted. I have no sexual interest in children.' 

But National Crime Agency operations manager Holly Triggs said Binns ‘deliberately collected a huge number of indecent images of children. Behind each one is an abused child who has had their wellbeing, innocence and privacy violated.’

The printed version of the Edinburgh Fringe programme is due out on June 12. Participants have to asset that they have the rights to any images they upload to promote their show – which is very unlikely in Mulholland’s case.

He describes his show as 'hilariously dirty comedy with no sad bits' and quotes a review that called his work 'nasty, offensive and dangerous' – punters can't say they weren't warned...

Published: 28 May 2024