Stuart Eyles 47

Description

A paedophile branded a 'danger to children' by police sexually assaulted three young girls at a family event - months after being released early from prison. Stuart Eyles set upon the children while mingling with hundreds of locals at the event in Stockport.

The 47-year-old targeted the victims after getting drunk. When the girls complained to their parents and Eyles was pointed out as the culprit, he denied wrongdoing but admitted drinking seven pints of beer at the event last summer.

At the time, he was on licence after being locked up for 30 months in April 2021 after pleading guilty to 57 offences involving online grooming and possessing child pornography.

He was also on the Sex Offender Register; had been made subject of a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) banning him from having any contact with children under 16; and had completed a Home Office 'Horizon' programme aimed at rehabilitating sex offenders.

It is thought Eyles was freed early from jail in July 2022 under government rules allowing the automatic release of prisoners halfway through their sentences. He had three months left on his parole when he struck again.

In a statement to police, the father of one of the girls said the incident had 'rocked' his daughter's confidence.

''As for me I feel terrible too as I feel I have let my daughter down, I've hardly slept since," he added. The mum of another victim said her daughter had become 'socially withdrawn' and had undergone counselling 'to cope with the trauma'.

At Minshull Street Crown Court, Eyles, of Buckley Drive, Romiley, Stockport, was jailed for 15 months after being convicted of three charges of sexual assault. The SHPO order will be renewed for another 10 years.

Sentencing, Recorder Alexandra Simmonds told Eyles his behaviour had been 'predatory and opportunistic'. "You took advantage of the crowds to try and disguise your behaviour and it was the deliberate target of young girls on your part," she added.

''It is clear you were seeking out opportunities to touch young girls in the way you did and the impact of your offending has been significant. You have previous convictions for internet based child-related sexual offending and were on licence at the times of these offences. You completed the Horizon programme and yet have gone on to commit these offences despite that intervention.

"You have of course shown no remorse because you don't accept responsibility for these offences and are you are assessed as posing a high risk of serious harm to children."

Eyles was originally reported to Greater Manchester Police by the South East Regional Organised Crime Unit back in 2018 after he began unwittingly swapping messages with one of their undercover detectives over the KIK social media platform, which they had been using to trap online predators.

The undercover operative informed Eyles, whose username was 'Squid Thing', that the profile was that of a 14-year-old child and offered to cease the conversation, but he stated he did not want that to happen and began to sexualise the conversation and asked for indecent images to be sent.

In March 2019, a warrant was carried out at Eyles' home where various devices were seized, including a laptop, a camera, a mobile phone and a USB stick. Following this warrant, officers met Eyles outside his workplace and his mobile phone was seized.

Detectives conducted a forensic examination of all his electronic devices and discovered further criminal activity, including online sexual activity with a girl who he had sent sexually explicit pictures of himself and asked to meet for oral sex. She was the only person known to have existed as the others were police officers masquerading as young girls.

They also found various indecent images of children stored on the devices. Eyles, who also used other platforms, told police he committed the offences whilst ''bored' working nights. He claimed he was aware some of the profiles were fake and insisted his actions were 'hypothetical and fantasy to push things'.

He later admitted one count of sexual communication with a child; five counts of attempted sexual communication with a child; one count of causing a child to engage in sexual activity; one count of attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity; 21 counts of making indecent images of a child; and 30 counts of distributing indecent images of a child.