"He stole my baby's innocence": Girl 'robbed' of her childhood by paedophile who became 'obsessed' with her

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

A young girl was 'robbed of her childhood' by a paedophile who groomed then repeatedly sexually abused her. Michael Dennett, now 54, told the girl, who was aged 12 and 13 at the time, that he 'loved her' and that she was 'beautiful'.

Sickening sexually charged texts which Dennett had sent her were discovered by the victim's mother. The victim told police that for more than a year Dennett had been 'acting weird', saying that he 'loved her' and asking if she would 'be his girlfriend'.

He had sent pictures of him 'down below' and had made a FaceTime call to her while he was in the shower. "It was clear that there was communication between the defendant and the girl that was wholly inappropriate," prosecutor Brendan O'Leary told Manchester Crown Court. READ MORE : Cruel Grindr gang filmed sex with married men - including Manchester dad - before blackmailing them for thousands "He would tell her that he loved her and hat she was beautiful, she said." It was also discovered that Dennett, from Wigan, had repeatedly sexually abused the girl.

After police looked at the victim's phone, they found further messages between the two. In reference to a picture of the girl, Dennett said: "I'm going to send that picture to Santa so he knows what I want for Christmas, haha." "He has ruined my teenage years as there is not a day that goes by when I am not thinking about it," the victim said in a statement read in court. "The trust in adult males has faded. "It will never go away.