'Dangerous sexual predator', 36, arrested at hotel with girl, 14, he groomed on children's chat room then abused

A man branded a 'dangerous sexual predator' was arrested at a hotel after a quick-thinking receptionist called police when he checked in with a 14-year-old girl. The employee was praised by a judge as she jailed Terence Raymond Lewis, 36.

Police said the receptionist dialled 999 and officers were 'immediately at the scene' in Stockport on January 7 this year to take him into custody. It emerged Lewis had groomed the teenager over an online children's chat forum, beginning when she was just 11 years-old, Greater Manchester Police said.

The force said he concealed his real identity to pose as a teenage boy aged 14, using another child's photographs under a false name. An investigation, said GMP, went on to uncover the 'true extent of his offending'. Police recovered thousands of images from his mobile devices after reviewing tens of thousands of text messages.

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Lewis, of Bolton Street, Blackpool, pleaded guilty in June to 19 counts of child sexual offences. They included one count of meeting a child following online grooming; abducting a child, two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity; four counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act; five counts of sexual activity with a child and six counts of causing a child to engage in sexual activity.

At a sentencing hearing at Manchester's Minshull Street Crown Court on Monday, Lewis was jailed for nine years and nine months, with a three-year extended licence period.

The investigation was led by GMP's Child Protection Investigation Unit based in Stockport. "On Sunday 7 January 2024, a hotel receptionist alerted police in Stockport that an older man had checked in with a young