April 2016

MUM posed as her 12-year-old daughter to snare Facebook pervert

A MUM posed as her 12-year-old daughter to snare a father-of-five Facebook pervert grooming the schoolgirl for sexual pleasure.

The concerned parent had taken over her daughter’s account when Michael Hulme arranged to meet what he thought was a 12-year-old girl at Hanford Park.

But the 43-year-old fled when he saw a group of people waiting for him and realised he had been rumbled.

Police arrested Hulme by tracing his registration number and discovered he had also tried to meet a second 12-year-old girl at Bucknall Park.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard Hulme had exchanged sexually-explicit messages and photographs with the girls.

Now he has been jailed for three years and eight months for his crimes.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard Hulme tried to entice two 12-year-old girls to meet up with him after grooming them on the internet.

The 43-year-old used Facebook and WhatsApp to try to lure the girls to two Potteries parks.

But his plan failed when one of the girl’s mums became aware of what was going on because she had set up her daughter’s Facebook account to receive all notifications.

She alerted the police, kept the conversation going and Hulme asked to meet at Hanford Park.

But Hulme soon realised he had been set up when the girl’s relatives were there and he was arrested later that night.

It was then discovered he had groomed another 12-year-old on WhatsApp.

The messages he sent to that youngster were more sexual in nature and he exchanged intimate photographs with the schoolgirl.

Prosecutor Ian Ball told Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court that Hulme used an alias of John Holmes when talking to the girl on Facebook.

The girl’s mum took on her daughter’s character and told him she was aged 12 but the chat still became sexual.

He arranged to meet the ‘girl’ on January 21 – and asked her to wear a short top and whether she would lift it up.

Hulme told police he was not thinking straight.

In the second incident, Hulme pretended to be a 17-year-old college student called Mike Jones. He exchanged intimate pictures with the girl.

She refused to meet him at Bucknall Park and the nearby Esso garage.

Hulme, of no fixed address, pleaded guilty to two offences of meeting or attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming and intending to pervert the course of public justice.

Jailing Hulme for three years and eight months, Judge Timothy Smith said: “There was talk of penetrative sexual activity with one girl. Fortunately she did not attend that meeting but you did and you wanted to meet her and asked why she had not turned up.

“At the time you also, under a different name, started to engage another 12-year-old into your own sexual net.

“It was only because of the wisdom and presence of her mother in setting up the Facebook account that your activity came to light. She took on the character of her daughter and continued in conversations with you having notified the police about what was happening.

“It is clear these became increasingly sexual in a similar way to the conversations you were having with the other girl.

“The police were there at the meeting point. You had arranged to meet up with the girl. But for the fact somebody else happened to be at the scene you would have been arrested there.”

Hulme will be on the sex offenders’ register for the rest of his life and is the subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order until further order.