February 2015: Michael Tierney has died from a suspected drugs overdose.

January 2015: Now living in Kylsyth close, off Garloch close, Cinnamon Brow Warrington

April 2010

Fury over rapist at Sandbach bail hostel

A CONVICTED paedophile who raped a schoolgirl and molested a 15-year-old boy is living in a Sandbach bail hostel next to a children’s park.

Sex offender Michael Tierney is currently on licence at the Linden Bank Hostel in London Road, Elworth, after serving nine months of an 18-month prison sentence for molesting the young boy.

He committed the offence just a year after being freed from a 15-year sentence for the rape, indecent assault and gross indecency of a girl over a nine-year-period beginning when she was just six years old.

Protesters who say Sandbach is “a dumping ground for the country’s perverts” are up in arms after the 45-year-old monster was tracked down and pictured by the News of the World newspaper.

At a hearing at Warrington Crown Court on Thursday, March 25, a ban on publishing Tierney’s picture was lifted by judge Stephen Clarke after an appeal by the national paper’s lawyers.

The Probation Service had asked for the ban, due to fears for Tierney’s safety.

The Linden Bank hostel has caused controversy since it was opened in 1994 but Time 2 Go members say the housing of Tierney is the final straw.

Group leader Janette Rathbone says members regularly patrol local parks to look out for known sex offenders.

She said: “I’m absolutely livid and I hope this is the wake up call for anyone who questioned why we are campaigning for this place to close.

“My phone has not stopped ringing this week with people worried for the safety of their children.

“Sandbach is a dumping ground for the nation’s perverts, flashers and paedophiles. We don’t have to patrol parks but we live in fear and feel we have to.

“I’m delighted the media has revealed the face of this beast.”

A Cheshire Probation Service spokeswoman said: “Our primary concern is to protect the public while managing offenders safely in the community.

“To do this we impose strict conditions on residents in Linden Bank which include a ban on entering the local park. We operate a curfew between 11pm and 6am and can seek additional restrictions in Court Orders or Prison Licences where this will provide additional protection to the public.

“We work very closely with the police, prison service and other agencies to ensure the safe management of serious offenders.”

February 2010

Dewsbury rape victim: ‘I chose not to be a victim’

As a girl, Carrie experienced horrific sexual, physical and emotional abuse at the hands of her mother’s boyfriend. Now, as “evil giant” Michael Tierney starts another jail sentence, she tells her story of her ordeal.

FROM the moment 6ft 8in tall, 18-stone Michael Tierney entered her life, Carrie was absolutely terrified of him.

She suffered horrific sexual abuse from the ages of six to 11 after Tierney became her mother’s partner.

Today Carrie, a 29-year-old mum-of-four from Dewsbury, has bravely waived her right to anonymity to reveal her hell at Tierney’s hands.

As well as frequent sexual abuse, Carrie endured violent beatings and was forced to cut, bag and wrap Tierney’s heroin.

Tierney, now 45, was recently jailed over another sex case in Cheshire, committed months after he was freed for Carrie’s rape.

“I could cut, bag and wrap heroin by the time I was 15,” Carrie said, with a wry smile. “That was what my life was like.

“The sexual abuse started when I was around six or seven. He would come into the bathroom when I was in the bath, or ask me to watch TV with him in his bedroom. He would threaten to kill himself and the whole family if I told anyone.

“At first, I thought it was normal. It was only when I got a bit older that I realised something was wrong.”

The sex attacks stopped when Carrie was around 11 because, in her words, she was “getting older and he lost interest”.

It was at this point when the physical attacks, sparked by Tierney’s heroin and steroid addiction, started getting worse.

Carrie recalls one incident where she arrived home 10 minutes past her curfew, only to be violently punished by Tierney.

“He threw me up the stairs and chucked a chest of drawers at me, just for being 10 minutes late. I was terrified.

“He was a real Jekyll and Hyde character. When he was nice, he was nice. When he was in a bad mood, he just flipped.

“Everyone in the area knew of his reputation. He was known as Mad Mick for miles around because he was so violent.

“I once brought a friend home and he was cleaning his gun in the garden. There were always guns and knives all over the house.

“On one occasion, he thought some kid had stolen his methadone, so he had him in the kitchen with his hands spread out on the table, ready to chop his fingers off. The boy was crying and begging me to find the methadone, because he was saying he didn’t steal it.

“I eventually found it. He (Tierney] had just misplaced it. The lad had done nothing wrong.”

Carrie also remembered Tierney feeding her brother’s pet rabbit and guinea pig to the family’s snake, just for the “fun” of it.

Another snake met a grisly end when Tierney chopped its head off with a shovel, simply because “he didn’t want it any more”.

Then one day in late 1996, while her mother was in hospital suffering from a nervous breakdown, Carrie’s life changed forever.

At the age of 15, she discovered she was pregnant.

Fearing for the life of her unborn child, she found the courage to tell her school social worker about the years of abuse that she suffered at the hands of Tierney.

With police and social services she orchestrated a plan to get herself away from Tierney.

She pretended to go to school, when in fact, she met police officers to give witness statements.

Before Tierney could be arrested, he was tipped off.

After going to visit Carrie’s mum and telling her he would never see her again, he travelled to London, where he spent three days on the run before being arrested.

Carrie gave evidence at his trial, with Tierney found guilty of rape, indecent assault and indecency with a child in November 1997.

He spent some of his time on remand in Rampton Hospital, where Carrie was told he made friends with child killer Beverley Allitt.

Allitt, 41, nicknamed the “Angel of Death”, murdered four children while working as a nurse in 1991.

“I was pregnant and he was friendly with a woman who killed babies,” she said. “Can you imagine how I felt when I heard that?

“Ever since then, I’ve been looking over my shoulder. There is nothing to stop him moving in next door or coming back to Dewsbury.”

Tierney, who was also convicted of assault and wounding, was sentenced to 15 years in prison, at Bradford Crown Court, where a judge said he had a “severe personality disorder of a psychopathic nature”.

The only time Carrie broke down in our interview was when talking about her difficult relationship with her mother, who now lives abroad.

“She blamed me for pulling our family apart,” she said, holding husband Michael’s hand for support.

“After Tierney’s arrest I had to go into care until the case came to court because I was a witness. I was pregnant and alone.

“He completely destroyed my mother. He ground her down. He drugged her and she was anorexic, just a complete wreck.

“I just thought, if I could do what I did for my unborn child, why couldn’t you have done it for us? It didn’t make any sense.”

It was a quick search through Google which led to Carrie uncovering the details of Tierney’s latest offence in Widnes, Cheshire.

He befriended a mum and molested her 15-year-old son in May last year, just months after he was given early release from prison.

Judge Stephen Clarke jailed him for 18 months after he admitted sexual activity with a child – but controversially, approved a request to ban the publication of his photograph, despite admitting that Tierney posed “a significant risk” of causing “serious harm”.

It is feared the ruling could be used by other paedophiles to help shield details of themselves and their crimes from the public.

The decision could also undermine Government plans to introduce a “Sarah’s Law”, which would allow parents to know the whereabouts of sex offenders following the death of eight-year-old Sarah Payne, who was killed by paedophile Roy Whiting in July 2000.

Bravely, Carrie offered more information about Tierney’s past convictions to prosecutors and sat through the case at Chester Crown Court, coming face to face with her tormentor for the first time in 12 years.

“It was weirdly empowering,” she said. “I hadn’t seen him for such a long time that I’d built up this image of a big, strong man, like he was to me when I was a young child. But as a grown woman, I saw him for what he is, a sad, sick old man. It was a relief to see him like that.”

Carrie, who is married to firefighter Michael, 36, is now determined to prevent Tierney from tearing apart another family.

She has contacted the charity Kidscape and wants to work with Sara Payne once she has recovered from her brain surgery.

She feels that if her story prevents another child’s life from being destroyed, she has done the right thing.

“I have no protection and he has all the protection in the world,” she fumed. “He can come out on licence, have a curfew, but during his hours outside, he’s allowed to go wherever he wants and nobody will recognise him.

“If even one woman hears my story and knows not to go near him, it will be worthwhile. I’ll do whatever I can to stop other lives from being destroyed like mine was. I’ve chosen not to be a victim and not to let the past destroy my future.

“I’ve rebuilt my life and I’m proud of what I’ve achieved, although I’m terrified for the safety of my children because I know what’s out there.

“I still suffer from night terrors and I have seizures where I black out, caused by post-traumatic stress.

“But I want to make my story heard, no matter what the risks, to protect other people from this evil giant.”

He’s very, very dangerous, she’s very very brave

MICHAEL Tierney is a “highly dangerous man” who should not be released into the public, says Kidscape director Claude Knights.

The paedophile has demonstrated an “alarming pattern” of reoffending, which means the public are at risk if he is placed in a bail hostel.

“He is a very, very dangerous person. He was out on early release and managed to re-offend in a short space of time,” Mrs Knights said.

“No treatment or rehabilitation programmes administered in the past seem to have changed his predatory habits.

“It seems to me that a bail hostel can’t provide the level of security and monitoring this man needs.

“How many more children need to be abused before someone says, actually, we can’t manage this man in a non-custodial setting?”

Mrs Knights said that Tierney used “highly-developed grooming skills to obtain people’s confidence”.

“He seems to have a knack for homing in on vulnerable people and integrating himself into their lives very quickly,” said Mrs Knights.

“He is, like many predators, very devious. I know Carrie finds it very disturbing to see him allowed to repeat previous behaviour.”

Mrs Knights also praised Carries’s bravery in talking to the YEP and the positive attitude shown by her desire to help Kidscape.

“She’s very, very brave to put herself in the public domain,” she said. “From her point of view, she wants to warn every potential lone mother or someone else who might be vulnerable to Tierney’s charms.

“She wants to make sure no other children are harmed and will do whatever she can do to ensure this doesn’t happen again.

“Sadly, in Tierney’s case, it seems the only way to guarantee that is for him to be in custody for a long, long time.”