A paedophile has been jailed for 13 years after grooming and sexually abusing two teenage girls.
Christopher Oates, 45, groomed one girl aged 14 and another aged 17, before acting as their “pimp” and forcing them to have sex with men.
He is the first defendant to be brought to justice as part of Operation Green Jacket, investigating grooming gang offences in south Manchester in the early 2000s.
Manchester Crown Court heard Oates first pretended to be the “boyfriend” of the younger teenager, plying her with drugs to persuade her to become a prostitute in Manchester.
When she protested Oates dragged the girl down an alleyway, violently attacked her, and threatened her with a gun, stating: “You do as I say, you’re mine now”, commanding her to go to her “spot”.
Detectives investigating her case were able to identify a second victim, who was 17 years old when Oates coerced her into selling herself on the city’s streets.
Both victims recall Oates taking them to a designated spot in central Manchester at least once a week to carry out sex acts in cars for money.
One night, he organised for them to have sex in a room with a man while being recorded on video.
Oates, of Tannock Road, Stockport, would supply both victims with cocaine and alcohol and pressured them to take crack cocaine and heroin, aiming to build an addiction and increase their dependency on him, but they declined and managed to escape.
In victim impact statements read out in court, the first victim said: “You groomed me, you put a gun to my head, and not only did you abuse me, but you let other men too. The fear, the pain and confusion I felt I can’t begin to put into words.”
And the second victim said: “At the time when the exploitation was happening, I felt ashamed, embarrassed, and pressured by Oates. I felt absolutely vile during and after the incident involving the video camera and also when I stood on street corners, I felt scared about who would be in the next car that stopped, and I was terrified.”
The defendant was first investigated for drugs offences in 2012 when police also found he possessed indecent images.
He fled to Bangkok then later lived in the Dominican Republic before being arrested in Stockport in 2023.
Officers found a false passport, more indecent images of children and evidence he had been grooming a child on social media with sexualised messages.
He later pleaded guilty to two counts of making indecent images of children, taking indecent images of children, and attempting to engage a child in sexual communication.
He also pleaded guilty to the production of cannabis and two counts of possessing an identity document with improper intent, along with possession of a firearm with intent to cause fear of violence, three counts of engaging in penetrative sexual activity with a girl aged 13 – 15 years old and two counts of causing/inciting a child aged 13 – 17 years to prostitution.
Outside court, senior investigating officer Detective Inspector Eleanor Humphreys, from Greater Manchester Police (GMP), said: “I would like to commend the two women at the centre of this case for the strength they demonstrated throughout our investigation and subsequent legal proceedings.
“Despite Oates’s cowardly attempts to evade facing justice, the evidence we uncovered was overwhelming, and his crimes finally caught up with him. I hope this brings these survivors a sense of closure after all these years.”
Lucy Dowdall, specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service’s Organised Child Sexual Abuse Unit, said: “The Crown Prosecution Service remains dedicated to pursuing justice for victims of child sexual abuse and will continue to work tirelessly with law enforcement partners to hold violent sex offenders like Oates accountable – no matter how much time has passed since they committed their crimes.”
