It was among the Victorian heritage of Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, two and a half years ago, that Boris Johnson first made the pitch.
19.01.2022 - 09:33 / manchestereveningnews.co.uk
A paedophile travelled from Greater Manchester to Wales after arranging to sexually abuse a young child - but was met by police officers instead.
Michael Crossley spent months chatting to someone he believed to be the girl's mother online and over the phone before making the trip from his home on Bury New Road, Radcliffe, Bury, to carry out his sick fantasies.
In fact he had been communicating with an undercover policewoman and officers were waiting for him when he arrived at the meeting point in Cardiff, WalesOnlines reports.
READ MORE: 'No-one told me it was against the rules': Boris Johnson denies lying to Parliament over Downing Street lockdown parties
Crossley would later claim that he was actually a paedophile hunter and had been trying to expose what he thought was a mother who was selling her daughter for sex.
But the 34-year-old failed to turn up for his trial to put that version of events before a jury last year and jurors convicted him in his absence.
The defendant returned to the dock of Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court for sentencing for facilitating sexual activity with a child and also for being involved in a 110mph police chase in a stolen car – an incident which took place in Bolton while he should have been on trial in Wales.
The court heard that in the August of 2019 Crossley was on an adult sex website where he contacted the profile of a woman who had a daughter.
The defendant began messaging the woman on the site and then talking to her on the phone and he made it clear he was interested in 'playing' with her and her child.
He then began asking for indecent pictures of the girl, talked about the sex acts he wanted to perform on the child, including full penetrative sex, and discussed money changing
It was among the Victorian heritage of Manchester’s Museum of Science and Industry, two and a half years ago, that Boris Johnson first made the pitch.
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