Internet groomer from Filey jailed for rapes

A 48-year-old man who admitted tricking two teenage girls into believing he was 17 via the internet and then raped them has been jailed indefinitely.

Eugene Molloy, 48, of Filey, North Yorkshire, targeted the girls, from the Preston area, by pretending to be a fictitious teenage boy called Deano.

He then pretended to be Deano's father, threatening to kill his "son" if the girls did not have sex with him.

Molloy was jailed for a minimum of eight years at Preston Crown Court.

He admitted seven counts of rape at an earlier hearing.

Good-looking 'boy'

Originally he went on trial last July but changed his pleas to guilty on the second day of the hearing before any evidence was heard.

He later sought to change his pleas again but Judge Edward Slinger refused him permission when he heard further evidence.

Molloy, of Doran Close, was placed on the Sex Offenders Register for life and banned from working for children.

He can only be released on licence by the Parole Board if he is no longer considered a danger to the public.

The court heard how Molloy, a truck driver, used a photograph of a good-looking boy as the profile picture of Deano on a social networking website called Luna Storm.

He went on to groom the girls for between six and 12 months before arranging to meet them.

Sentencing Molloy to a minimum of eight years in jail for the public's protection, Judge Slinger said: "This was clear plotting, grooming and manipulation of these young girls by a devious and cunning man."