July 2013 Stockport child rapist Gary Parkin jailed after decade on run A child rapist who spent more than a decade living under a false name after going on the run following his arrest has been jailed for 20 years. Gary Parkin, 47, of Thomas Street, in Bredbury, was found guilty of rape at Manchester Crown Court. He was also found guilty of attempted rape, indecent assault and child neglect. Police said Parkin’s victims had been two young girls, one of whom had been five when he first attacked her. Parkin failed to appear at court after being charged with child abduction in 2001, when he took a 12-year-old girl to a hotel. He managed to evade capture for 11 years by living under the assumed name of Steven Ellis, a police spokesman said. He was caught after police raided a house in Thomas Street and found Parkin living with a new family. The spokesman said the house was in “a state of squalor and there was no food inside”. ‘Pitiful existence’ Following his arrest, the victim of the child abduction told police of several earlier rapes, some when she was five, which she had not previously been able to talk about. During the investigation into those incidents, a second woman who had been raped by Parkin when she was a child also came forward. Det Sgt Joanne Kay said such was the “harrowing” nature of Parkin’s crimes, some of the jury were “reduced to tears” during his trial. She said the victims deserved to be praised for having “the courage to talk about what they suffered, firstly to police and then in the court room”. “Without question, their bravery has seen a dangerous man finally get his comeuppance,” she said. “Having subjected these women to sexual abuse when they were very young, he continued to lord it over those he hurt for more than 10 years by failing to own up to his crimes. “He could not even find the conscience to do the right thing and was attempting to eke out a pitiful existence living in squalor.”