February 2018 Paedophile who tried to lure 15-year-old boy to Middlewich home is sentenced An already convicted sex offender who tried to lure a 15-year-old boy to his Middlewich home less than six months after being released from prison has been jailed. Andrew Rigby, 34, from Wheelock Street, was jailed for four years and nine months at his sentencing hearing at Chester Crown Court He had pleaded guilty to attempting to abduct a child and breaching a sexual prevention order at a previous hearing. Rigby was previously handed a five-and-a-half-year prison sentence in 2011 for arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and attempting to make indecent images or photos of a child. During his sentence, Rigby was also convicted of child sexual offences, which he committed against two young boys, and was handed an extended prison sentence. Despite this, he managed to convince the parole board that he was no longer a harm to the public and was released on licence in June 2017. The court heard how Rigby first met his latest victim, a 15-year-old boy who cannot be named for legal reasons, on a car park in Middlewich in November. Rigby began speaking to the victim, who was with a group of friends. The victim saw Rigby again a few days later when he was with friends in the town centre. The court heard how Rigby waited until the victim was on his own and shouted at him until he stopped. Peter Hussey, prosecuting, said: “Rigby said I have just moved to Middlewich. In my attic I can’t see my stuff because I am too big. “I need someone small like you to get my stuff down. I’ll pay you if you do it.” The victim said no and said he would be grounded if he was late, before attempting to cross the road. Rigby continued to follow the victim and asked him if he liked drinking alcohol. The victim managed to escape by running away, before making it home safely where he then informed his mother, who subsequently called the police. Rigby was later arrested and charged after police looked over CCTV footage. Rigby initially denied any wrongdoing to police and to magistrates, before pleading guilty at a plea and trial preparation hearing. In a victim impact statement read out in court, the boy said that following the incident he was afraid to leave the house and go out with his friends. He said he was more aware of who was around him when he did go out, particularly older men. “When he tried to get me to come home with him I knew it was wrong,” the victim said. “I was scared he wanted me to follow him. I didn’t want this to happen to anyone else.” “He doesn’t want to keep going back to prison, he wants to be rehabilitated so he can come out and live a normal life.” Delivering his sentence, Judge Patrick Thompson said he was ‘very satisfied’ Rigby was sexually attracted to the victim and planned on taking him to his home so he could commit sexual offences. He said Rigby posed ‘a very high risk to children’. “You are a highly devious, cunning and manipulative man. You managed to deceive and manipulate a professional psychologist,” the judge said. “You managed to convince professional people and other agents on the sex offender programme including managers, that you were safe to be released. “That wasn’t the case. You wanted to be released because you wanted to go out and commit sexual offences against children.”