Liverpool paedophile who assaulted young girls jailed

Lewis Jones grabbed one girl and forced her into woodland where he assaulted her

A judge has criticised police who allowed a dangerous paedophile free to sexually assault a six-year-old girl he snatched while playing in a park.

Lewis Jones, 24, was arrested by Merseyside Police after grooming and sexually abusing a girl, 12, he met through Snapchat in 2020.

He was still under investigation two years later when he attacked the girl in the park.

He was jailed for life with a minimum of 12 years at Manchester Crown Court.

Passing sentence, Judge Hilary Manley said delays by police 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."

Furtively taking photos

Jones, formerly of Brocklebank Lane, Allerton, Liverpool, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to 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 two counts of assault by penetration in August.

Vanessa Thomson, prosecuting, told the court Jones first sat on a bench, furtively taking photos on his phone of female children playing in a park in Droylsden, Greater Manchester, last year.

He then approached, offering to help make a den, then grabbed the girl, covering her mouth with his hand and ran off.

A girl, 11, realised what happened and told the other children to run for help and shouted out for the police to be called, prompting a search to begin immediately, the court heard.

The girl was being assaulted in woodland when Jones was disturbed by people calling her name as they looked 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".

After the attack, Jones fled along a canal towpath, but handed himself in the next day after police issued a CCTV image of the suspect.

Lewis Jones attacked a six-year-old girl playing in a park in Greater Manchester

He initially denied any wrongdoing.

In a statement to the court, the girl's mother said her daughter's behaviour had seen a "significant" deterioration with chronic separation anxiety and always wanting to be with her parents, is anxious, wary of males, will not play outside and has "completely shut down".

Before the attack, Jones had already been under investigation after he claimed to be a school pupil aged 14 who groomed a 12-year-old girl.

The effects on the girl have been "catastrophic" and she is now living in care, the court heard.

Jones was arrested on 15 June 2020 and police found 102 child abuse images on his phone involving girls aged as young as nine.

He was then released by police and went to live with his father, who had moved from Liverpool to Manchester, where he carried out the second attack.

Ms Thomson told the court Jones was released under investigation by Merseyside Police, adding: "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."

Merseyside Police has been approached for comment.