Paedophile left free to kidnap girl after police failings

Telegraph

23-04-2025

Police failings left a dangerous paedophile free to kidnap a six-year-old girl, an internal review has found.
Workload pressures within Merseyside Police were among a catalogue of errors which led to a lack of 'supervisory oversight' that allowed Lewis Jones to sexually assault the child.
The then 21-year-old was first arrested in 2020 on suspicion of grooming and molesting a 12-year-old he met on Snapchat.
But he had still not been charged two years later in August 2022, when he snatched a six-year-old from a park in Droylsden, Greater Manchester, where she had been playing.
Now, an internal police review has highlighted how the initial case against him drifted without him being charged, allowing him to carry out the second attack.
A copy of the review, obtained by the BBC via a freedom of information request, showed the force's unity and protecting vulnerable people (PVP) teams – which specialise in investigating rape and sexual offences – were negatively affected by staffing pressures.
It found a leading detective constable had held on to a file even when they were transferred away to help another unit with its workload. This meant progress on the case was stalled.
Following this, a different detective constable held on to the case during a temporary promotion, meaning they had less time to work on it due to an increased workload.
Upon securing a permanent promotion, the detective was reluctant to reallocate the work to a junior detective, which resulted in further delays.
Additionally, senior detectives were not told of any of these problems because of a problem with police databases, the BBC reported.
Progress should have been checked every 16 weeks up the chain of command, but this didn't happen as there were problems with the police system in identifying the officer in the case.
During these delays, Jones moved to Manchester with his father.
On August 17 2022, he visited a play area in a park where he had sat on a bench, furtively taking photographs of playing children.
He then approached the victim and, after offering to help make a den, grabbed her, covered her mouth and carried her off to a nearby wooded area.
Jones sexually assaulted the child and also took indecent photographs before he was disturbed by people searching for her.
After being recognised by his father in CCTV footage from appeals by Greater Manchester Police, Jones was taken to a police station.
At Manchester Crown Court in 2023, Jones was jailed for life and told he would have to serve a minimum of 12 years before he would be considered for parole.
'Egregious failings'
At the hearing, Judge Hilary Manley hit out at delays in charging Jones for the earlier offences.
In what she described as 'an extremely troubling state of affairs', she slammed the force's 'egregious' failings, having released Jones under investigation.
Her comments prompted the force's review.
A Merseyside Police spokesman said: 'Our thoughts at this time remain with the victims of Lewis Jones and their families.
'We now conduct reviews of all rape and sexual offence cases within the unity and PVP teams to ensure the correct OICs [officers in charge] are clearly identified.
'We identified learning in relation to rape and sexual offence cases being moved out of the unity and PVP teams when staff members transfer out of the department.
'We have since reviewed all relevant cases to reallocate them back to the department accordingly.
'More staff have been recruited to support long-term workloads and improve the timeliness of investigations being submitted for charging advice.'