sex crimes | 

Prolific paedophile locked up after luring 15-year-old to car and groping her

Pervert sexually assaulted girl in industrial estate after offering lift

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A pervert who has been committing sex crimes since he was a teenager has been jailed for luring a teenager to a car and groping her.

Judge Patrick Lynch KC said Matthew Browne had a proven “propensity” for teenagers.

He continued: “(He is) a confirmed paedophile. There is no other way to describe him.”

Browne, from Halfpenny Gate Road in Moira, admitted sexually assaulting a child and breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order.

Prosecuting counsel Joseph Murphy told Craigavon Crown Court that Browne, using the pseudonym Jack Scott, regularly offered lifts to teenage girls via Snapchat.

He picked up his 15-year-old victim on January 13, 2020, to take her to Craigavon but drove to an industrial estate.

Mr Murphy said: “As they sat in the car, he started touching her breasts and thighs over her clothing.

“She asked him three times to stop and take her home, but he ignored her.”

The girl also reported to police that Browne had been touching himself over his jeans.

After he eventually took her home, he sent her a message asking if she was okay.

He was not arrested until after the teenager reported the incident in 2021.

When Browne was questioned, he claimed she told him she was 16.

Mr Murphy told the court Browne had 29 previous convictions stretching back to 2008 when, as a 16-year-old, he was given a probation order for indecently assaulting a nine-year-old boy.

He was handed a probation order for sexual activity with a 14-year-old when he was 22.

Browne was given a third order in 2017 after he admitted 17 charges of having indecent images of children.

In April last year, he was handed a three-year sentence for offences relating to collecting a 13-year-old girl in his car and asking her to perform a sex act.

Ordering Browne to serve a year in jail and a year on licence, Judge Lynch said there was “an element of grooming to the offences”.

The pervert will be on the sex offenders register for life.