LGBT activist used Grindr to meet 15-year-old boy for cuddle and peck
Christopher Oatway used the hook-up app to arrange to meet someone he believed was a minor
By Steve Brown
An LGBT activist used Grindr to arrange to ‘meet a 15-year-old boy for a cuddle and peck’.
Radio DJ Christopher Oatway used the hook-up app to speak to a profile he believed was a teenage boy but when he arrived at the Tesco in Chorlton last year, the teenager was in fact an adult, the Manchester Evening News reported.
He was forced to hand over £50 and the adult threatened to report him to the police if he refused.
Oatway then arranged to meet another teenage boy a year later but it turned out to be a member of the ‘paedophile hunter’ group.
Manchester Crown Court heard the LGBT activist – who organised pride events in Stockport, Trafford and Rochdale – had been speaking with someone he believed to be called Cody on the app.
Oatway and the ‘teenager’ agreed to meet in Manchester city centre where he was met by a man.
Police then seized items including a mobile phone from his home and details of his meet-up where revealed on the app.
He appeared at court relating to the earlier incident in Chorlton and was sentenced to a two-year community order, including a sex offender treatment program after admitting attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child.
Oatway must also sign the sex offender’s register for five years.
Sentencing, Judge Richard Mansell QC told Oatway: “You have an issue here that needs addressing.”
The judge said in a pre-sentence report that Oatway was in ‘denial’ about having a sexual attraction to children.
“That can’t be so,” the judge added. “You have demonstrated you were attracted by the thought of meeting a 15-year-old.”