Four predators officers have brought to justice
Last month Rochdale paedophile SHAUN FREEMAN, 56, was jailed for 13 years after raping, beating up and plying a woman with drugs when she was a teenager. He started grooming his victim when she was just 14, initially giving her drugs and before making sexual advances when she was 15. She was often kept in his bedroom suffering the effects of the drugs and on one occasion Freeman beat her up with a hammer, in a jealous rage. But in 2014 she bravely came forward to police and was later praised by officers for her courage, which helped them ‘put a dangerous man behind bars’.
NANA BAAFI, 36, was arrested as part of Operation Phoenix – the Greater Manchester Police child abuse operation praised by Ms Coffey in her report. Baafi, of Ashton-Under-Lyne, met a 15-year-old girl online and pestered her for months, showering her with compliments even though he knew she was under age. Eventually she agreed to meet him and when she did, he raped her. He was found guilty of rape and sexual activity with a child in January last year and jailed for 11 years. Officers from the Tameside branch of Operation Phoenix said Baafi ‘knew full well what he was doing’ when he met up with the girl and paid tribute to the victim for her bravery.
SHANE FIELDING used social media to prey on girls as young as 13 – arranging to meet them after chatting online. His offences came to light after GMP investigated his communications on networking sites. They found he had been grooming four girls aged 13 to 15, before arranging to meet in person and then attacking them. Fielding, of Cheriton Drive, Bolton, pleaded guilty to grooming, two counts of sexual activity with a child and three counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity in December. He was jailed for three years and two months. Police warned of the dangers of communicating with anyone they do not know on social media.
Manchester doorman SHAUN TOREVELL was snared by a so-called ‘paedophile-hunter’ – after travelling to Luton for what he thought was a meeting with a 14-year-old schoolgirl. In fact his victim was really campaigner Neil Ivall, who had created a fake Facebook account in order to trap abusers. Torevell claimed in court that his online conversations were just ‘bravado’, but the trial heard he had messaged the ‘girl’ calling her ‘bang tidy’, later following up with sexually explicit pictures and clear indications he wanted sex. He was jailed for 12 months in October.