Paedophile Case Delays: A paedophile was allowed to re-offend due to police delays
A dangerous paedophile was allowed to re-offend because of a backlog in police investigating digital evidence.
38-year old Andrew Williams, a research assistant at Sheffield University, targeted a 13 year old girl and groomed her online.
He never met her – but the girl’s mother reported her fears to Greater Manchester Police.
But it took them 10 months to investigate the teenager’s laptop and mobile phone – and when they finally did, they said they couldn’t get the phone to work and dropped the case for lack of evidence.
It was only when 5 live Investigates got involved that the investigation was re-opened.
However, the delays meant he was free to befriend another under-age girl on the internet who he went on to groom and abuse.
