Paedophile Michael Jackson may spend life in jail

Michael Jackson was given an indefinite jail term for snatching a girl and a boy in separate attacks in Oldbury and told he would not be released until he was no longer a danger to the public.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard his abduction of a boy aged 10 sparked public protests after his victim managed to escape and call for help from a neighbour. It was only after he was arrested for this crime that a second victim, a girl of the same age, came forward.

He lured a 10-year-old girl to his home after targeting her while she was cycling under the pretext of playing a game last September.

Jackson told her it was 'tickle time', and played cops and robbers with the child, chasing her around his home.

After gaining her trust, he put tape over her mouth, bound her feet and hands before taking photographs of her.

He said he would give her £5 if she did not tell her mother. Two months later he targeted the 10-year-old boy. Jackson grabbed him from behind, covered his mouth and said 'if you scream, I'm going to kill you'.

The court heard Jackson took him back to his ground floor flat, which was decorated with Christmas wrapping and images from Disney story The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

When there, Jackson tied the child's ankles together with rope, bound his hands behind his back and taped his mouth. He told his victim his father would be murdered and he would never see his mother again'.

He removed the boy's boxer shorts, and trousers, leaving him naked from the bottom down before shoving him into an airing cupboard in his bathroom and sexually assaulting him.

The victim was then left alone while Jackson went to a friend's house and played computer games, seemingly to create an alibi for himself.

But the child wriggled free from the cupboard. He saw a Stanley knife on the bed, next to pliers and a hammer, which he believed were the instruments he intended to use to kill him.

The boy ran to a window and called for help. Jean Masih was passing by and heard his cries, called police and he eventually jumped from the window of Lowrey Court flats in Bristnall Hall Road into an officer's arms.

Jackson, aged 50, was later arrested.

Passing sentence today, Judge Martin Walsh said: "It's impossible to imagine the sheer terror experienced by those young children as a result of your actions.

"The fact of this case are truly horrific; the stuff of every parent's nightmare."

Jackson was the subject of physical and sexual abuse as a child and had developed a personality disorder, said Mr John Attwood, defending.

Jackson admitted kidnap, intent to commit a sexual offence, a sexual assault, child abduction and false imprisonment.

He was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders Register for life.