Child sex predator caught in sting on Facebook
ASEX predator has been jailed after he was caught in a bus station sting that was live-streamed on Facebook by a group of paedophile hunters.
Michael Riley, 26, from Stockport, was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court.
He had admitted to grooming and attempting to cause a child under 13 to engage in sexual activity at an earlier hearing.
Riley, of Shawcross Fold, had been targeted by a voluntary group called Defending the Innocent.
Members identify people who communicate inappropriately with children online and trap them by posing as youngsters. Riley had been using an online dating site called Meet 4 U and the group posed as a 12-year-old girl called Nina.
The conversation between ‘Nina’ and Riley moved on to WhatsApp and he arranged to meet her at Stockport Bus Station, Daw Bank, on the afternoon of January 25.
He sent a photograph of himself and a description of what he would be wearing. But when he arrived, two members of the group were there to meet him and showed him the printed off history of the conversation he had with ‘Nina’. The meeting was livestreamed on Facebook.
Police were called and arrested Riley.
He was also given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and cannot work with children for the rest of his life.
Defending the Innocent has a Facebook page that has around 7,700 members and posts pictures and information about sentences.
It also appeals for volunteers to help with its stings.
The group were contacted but declined to comment.
Capture was livestreamed by group on web