Locations
Brookhouse Avenue, Eccles, Greater Manchester, M30
Description
A man who cloned a bodybuilder's Facebook profile so he could target and sexually abuse a boy has been jailed.
Brandon Cooper, 24, cloned the account of a well-known local bodybuilder and sent messages of a sexual nature to the boy, who was under the age of 13.
The victim's father became aware of the messages and alerted police in August.
Cooper, of Brook House Avenue, Eccles, pleaded guilty to inciting a child to commit a sexual act and was jailed for 16 months at Manchester Crown Court.
Cooper used a fake name and Facebook profile "to gain the trust of the young victim", Greater Manchester Police said.
'Veil his identity'
The victim's father became concerned about messages of a sexual nature, which his son had received on social media.
The court heard how the man Cooper had impersonated was initially arrested but was quickly eliminated by detectives.
Det Con Tina Jackson said the "resilience" of the boy was "remarkable" but "Cooper's actions could easily have robbed a young person of his childhood".
"In impersonating an innocent man in an attempt to veil his identity and sadistically lure the young victim in, Cooper spared no thought for the consequences of his actions and the damage he could have done to another, innocent person's life.
Cooper was ordered to sign the sex offenders register for 10 years and is subject to a sexual harm prevention order indefinitely.