Sheraz Bhatti 43

Description

A man who 'clearly poses a danger to children' has been locked up after he tried to abduct a 14-year-old boy in Stockport.

Sheraz Bhatti was sitting in his orange and black Mini car on Jacksons Lane in the Hazel Grove area on March 20 last year when he spotted the boy walking home. He shouted him over to get his attention, a court heard.

Bhatti, 43, then asked him if he wanted to get in the car. He offered to take him home and told him he had drinks to give him. Thankfully the boy continued walking and told his parents what had happened when he got home. They contacted the police.

Officers later found that Bhatti had searched on the internet for a school on the street where he had parked up and spoken to the boy. They tracked down the distinctive Mini as belonging to him and found it parked outside his home in Wythenshawe the following day.

They seized two phones and found almost 300 indecent images of children on them, according to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS). Some were category A, the worst kind, with others category B and C.

Bhatti was also found to have four bank accounts which he had not informed police about - which was in breach of the sex offender indefinite notification requirements he was made subject to following a conviction for sexual offences in 2008. He initially denied attempting to abduct the boy, but accepted he was on the scene.

In December last year, he then pleaded guilty to attempting to abduct a child. He also pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent photographs of a child, two counts of possessing indecent photographs of a child, one count of distributing an indecent photograph of a child. and failing to comply with notification requirements.

Today (August 16), at Minshull Street Crown Court, Bhatti, of Longhope Road, Wythenshawe, was jailed for four years and three months. Richard Holliday, Senior Crown Prosecutor for CPS North West, said: "This incident encapsulates every parent's worst nightmare. Sheraz Bhatti clearly poses a danger to children.

"I would like to thank the boy for his quick thinking in raising the alarm which has helped us bring him to justice and protect other children from any other potential abuse. The Crown Prosecution Service takes offending of this nature extremely seriously and will work tirelessly to bring offenders to justice."