April 2013 Pervert offered schoolgirls cash for kisses or to touch them A PADGATE pervert has been ordered to complete a sex offenders course after a ‘bizarre’ series of incidents where he offered schoolgirls cash for a kiss or to touch them. Christopher Edwards, of Eric Avenue, had followed five girls ranging from aged 13 to 16 wearing their school uniforms in separate incidents in Padgate during a three month period in the summer last year. Warrington Crown Court heard on Monday he asked three of them: “Can I ask you a question? “If I gave you £100, can I have a kiss or feel your breasts?” During the final incident before he was caught by police, Edwards offered £200 for a ‘kiss, a touch or something’ to a girl in Bruche Park before the victim began to cry and feared he had a knife. He denied that was the case. In victim statements, the schoolgirls said they were now afraid walking home on their own and had lost sleep thinking about the incident. Cheryl Mottram, prosecuting, said: “Two police officers were patrolling the Padgate area looking for a man of his description when they spotted the defendant. “He told them he wanted to be honest and had approached girls in the park but hadn’t touched them.” Edwards had no previous convictions but had spent the last six months in jail after committing the offences while on bail. Graham Robinson, defending, said: “He has the support of his father and will be living with him. “The offences must have been very frightening for the girls but he admitted them as soon as he could.” Judge Nicholas Woodward said it was a very unusual and worrying case. He added: “Anyone subjected to this type of behaviour would have found it frightening and distressing not just because of the nature of what it was but because of the bizarreness of the behaviour. “They will have felt this was merely a precursor to a much more serious attack.” Edwards was ordered to live at his father’s house in Great Sankey for the next six months and will be supervised by the probation service for three years. He is also banned from working with children.