A paedophile who sexually abused a six-year-old girl was already being investigated for an attack on a 12-year-old. Merseyside Police have been blasted by a judge after it took them two years to build a case against Lewis Jones. This left the 24-year-old free to snatched his second victim while she was playing in a park.
Jones was initially arrested in 2020 after he groomed a 12-year-old girl he met through Snapchat, going on to sexually abuse her.
However, it took coppers two years to fully investigate the case.
In this time, Jones, formerly of Brocklebank Lane, Allerton, Liverpool, attacked the six-year-old while she played in the park.
He has been jailed for life, with a minimum of 12 years, following a hearing at Manchester Crown Court.
Sentencing, Judge Hilary Manley said police’s delays in charging and prosecuting offenders before they commit further crimes is “an extremely troubling state of affairs” and this case was an “egregious example”.
She said: “The net result is, in this case, this defendant, if he had been charged when he should have been, would not have been at liberty to abduct this six-year-old girl.
“That’s the cold facts of the case.”
At an earlier hearing Jones pleaded guiltyto four counts of sexual activity with a child and assault by penetration relating to a girl aged 12 and 13, and making indecent images of children, between January and June 2020. He also admitted to two counts of assault by penetration in August.
Prosecutor Vanessa Thomson told the court Jones sat on a park bench in Droylesden, Greater Manchester, and took photos on his phone of female children playing.
He approached them, offering to help make a den, before grabbing the girl and covering her mouth with his hand. He then ran off with her.
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A nearby 11-year-old girl realised what happened and told the other children to run for help and shouted out for the police to be called.
A search immediately began for the snatched girl, the court heard.
She was being assaulted in woodland when Jones heard people calling for her.
Twenty-five minutes later, bruised, bloodied and injured from the attack, the girl wandered to a house screaming: “Help me, I’ve been kidnapped.”
Jones fled to along a canal towpath – but when police issued a CCTV image of their suspect, he handed himself in the next day – although initially denied any wrongdoing.
In a statement to the court, the girl’s mother said her daughter’s behaviour had seen a “significant” deterioration.
She added that her daughter had been left with chronic separation anxiety and always wanted to be with her parents. She is anxious, wary of males, will not play outside and has “completely shut down”.
Jones was already under investigation after he pretended to be 14 years old to groom a 12-year-old girl on Snapchat.
The effects on the girl have been “catastrophic” and she is now living in care, the court heard.
After his arrest on June 15 2020, police found 102 child abuse images on his phone – some involving girls aged as young as nine.
Jones was released by police under investigation, Ms Thomson told the court. He then moved in with his father in Manchester, where he carried out the second attack.
Ms Thomson added: “It appears that it took two years to build a file and then that failed internal police triage anyway, due to personnel, retirement and third-party records.”
Express.co.uk has approached Merseyside Police for comment.
