A paedophile travelled to Wales with sex toys, condoms, and lubricant after arranging to sexually abuse a young child.
Michael Crossley spent months chatting to someone he believed to be the girl's mother online and over the phone before making the trip from his home in Bolton to carry out his sick fantasies. In fact he had been communicating with an undercover policewoman and officers were waiting for him when he arrived at the meeting point in Cardiff.
Crossley would later claim that he was actually a paedophile hunter and had been trying to expose what he thought was a mother who was selling her daughter for sex.
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But the 34-year-old failed to turn up for his trial to put that version of events before a jury last year and jurors convicted him in his absence.
The defendant returned to the dock of Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court for sentencing for the sexual offence and also for being involved in a 110mph police chase in a stolen car – an incident which took place in Bolton while he should have been on trial in Wales.
The court heard that in the August of 2019 Crossley was on an adult sex website where he contacted the profile of a woman who had a daughter.
The defendant began messaging the woman on the site and then talking to her on the phone and he made it clear he was interested in "playing" with her and her child. He then began asking for indecent pictures of the girl, talked about the sex acts he wanted to perform on the child, including full penetrative sex, and there were discussions about money changing hands.
The court heard that the profile on the adult site was actually being run by an undercover policewoman.
Crossley made arrangements to meet the woman and her daughter in Cardiff and travelled from his home in Bolton to the rendezvous point where he was met by police officers. He was found to be in possession of condoms, sex toys, lubricant, and a doll as a present for the child.
In his subsequent interview the defendant claimed to be part of a paedophile hunter group and said he believe the woman he had been chatting to was a paedophile who had been trying to sell her daughter for sex.
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Crossley maintained his not guilty plea and the matter went to trial last August but the defendant failed to turn up at court. The trial went ahead without him and he was duly convicted by the jury but in the meantime he had been involved in a high-speed police pursuit in his native Bolton. This offence had seen him hitting speeds of 110mph as he raced through residential streets in a stolen Audi car, speeding through red lights, and taking bends on the wrong side of the road. Eventually he abandoned the car and fled on foot but the combination of a police helicopter and a police dog tracked him down to his hiding place. When arrested he was found to be in possession of cannabis. The court heard the Audi had previously been stolen during a robbery and it was showing number plates that had been stolen from a different car which was being serviced in a garage.
Crossley, of Bury New Road, Radcliffe, Bury, had previously been convicted of arranging or facilitating sexual activity with a child and had pleaded guilty to aggravated vehicle-taking, dangerous driving, driving without insurance, possession of cannabis, and failing to surrender to bail when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has six previous convictions for six offences including producing cannabis, assisting an offender, and taking a vehicle without consent.
Barrister Isobel Thomas, for Crossley, said the defendant still denied his guilt as far as the sexual offence was concerned but acknowledged he was facing a custodial sentence of some length. She said that in 2019 the defendant was going through a "difficult time" with his business being closed down and his relationship of 16 years breaking down.. As a result she said he turned first to cannabis, then cocaine, and then crack cocaine and his mental health began to suffer.
Recorder Lucy Crowther told Crossley a jury had rejected his claims to be a paedophile hunter trying to trap an offender and the conversations he had with the undercover officer showed he, in fact, was the paedophile. She said the piece of dangerous driving he then engaged in had been "appalling" and it was remarkable nobody had been injured or killed.
Crossley was sentenced to a total of 54 months in prison comprising 42 months for the sexual offence, 10 months for the dangerous driving, and two months for failing to surrender to court all to run consecutively with each other. He was sentenced to six months for aggravated vehicle-taking and to one month for possession of cannabis with these sentences running concurrently to the 54 months. No separate penalty was imposed for driving without insurance. Because of the nature of the sex offence Crossley can apply for release at the halfway point of his sentence but it will be for the Parole Board to decide if or when he is released during his sentence. When he is released he will be on an extended one-year licence.
The defendant will be on the sex offenders' register for the rest of his life and was made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. He was also disqualified from driving and must pass an extended test before he can get his licence back.
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