Former sports coach jailed for child sex offences
Michael Hunter was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison
A former football and rugby coach has been jailed after pleading guilty to a string of child sex offences.
Michael Hunter was sentenced to seven years and four months in prison and given a lifetime Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The court hear how Hunter used his position to prey on young boys, his youngest victim being ten years old.
Hunter pleaded guilty to sexual activity with a teenage boy that he met as a football coach in 2009.
At the time, Hunter was given an FA banning order from coaching for inappropriate behaviour as neither police, the FA nor those around him, knew the full extent of his actions until it was fully reported to police some years later.
Although banned from coaching, Hunter fried several times to work with sports clubs again, he made excuses when asked to provide the appropriate information for background checks. When he ran out of excuses he would move on to another club.
Hunter also used social media and sent messages and naked photos of himself to a 13-year-old boy, the boy's father monitored his young son's social media accounts and quickly saw the picture and reported it to police.
The investigation led police to Hunter and when searching his phone and computers a video was found of a 10-year-old boy showering at his house.
PC Louise Dunne from GMP’s Child Sexual Exploitation Team said: “Michael Hunter preyed on young boys and used his position of trust to get access to them.
“He is a danger to children and is quite rightly going to spend the next seven years and four months behind bars.
“Hunter knew that the boys were under age and he didn’t care, he chose to use them for his own sexual gratification instead of thinking about the physical and emotional abuse he was inflicting on them.
“The victims and their families have been incredibly brave in helping police with this investigation and I can only hope that today’s sentence will provide them with some closure