Man jailed for bombarding girl with explicit messgaes

A man's been jailed for bombarding a 15-year-old girl with explicit messages on Facebook.

57-year-old Noel Rigby, of Brookhouse, was put behind bars for 18 months for inciting sexual activity with a child.

He's also been put on the sexual offenders register and subjected to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 10 years.

Detective Constable Rachel Forsythe, of GMP’s Wigan Child Sexual Exploitation team, said:

“Rigby has approached this girl in the street and made deeply inappropriate comments.

“He has then gone out of his way to track her down on Facebook and continued to flood her with explicit messages.

“I want to pay tribute to the bravery of this young girl in coming forward and helping us to secure this conviction.

“I hope today’s sentence demonstrates our commitment to pursuing sexual predators, no matter where they are or how long it takes.”

Speaking after the trial, her family said:

“As a result of what happened to my daughter, I saw her change almost overnight.

“My little girl, who was happy and confident, disappeared before me and in her place was a closed and quiet child. I found this heart breaking and difficult to deal with because I didn’t know how to make it better for her.

“As a family we have experienced many emotions throughout this investigation, but we are eased by the fact that the case has been heard in court and we can achieve some closure on the matter.

“We are grateful to the court for the sentence passed today and I believe that we can finally move on and put this behind us.”

If you have any concerns at all or want to speak to someone to pass on information or report a sexual offence, you can contact police on 101 or the independent charity Crimestoppers, anonymously, on 0800 555 111.