April 2023

Sickening crimes of paedophile who raped young girl

The sickening crimes of a paedophile who sexually assaulted young girls and uploaded indecent images to the internet were exposed after his phones were seized by police has now been sentenced to 22-years

‘Dangerous predator’ Matthew Singleton, 35, from Westhoughton, was caught after itelligence from the National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) led Greater Manchester police officers to his door on May 14 2021, in relation to uploading indecent child images to the internet.

Three mobile phones were seized from his property that revealed Singleton had taken pictures and videos of himself carrying out the horrific sexual offences against two young girls.

He was arrested and on September 28 last year was charged with 13 sexual offences including rape, sexual assault of a child and making indecent images of them, plus three further counts of making indecent images of children.

Singleton pleaded guilty to sexual assaulting the girls, making indecent images of them and downloading other images, but throughout the case he denied rape.

However, following a trial which concluded in February this year, the jury found him guilty of five counts of rape and one count of attempted rape.

He was sentenced for his crimes at Bolton Crown Court on April 19 to 22 years behind bars. He was also handed a six-year extended licence period and given an indefinite Sexual Harm Prevention Order.