A Predatory paedophile whose “truly horrific” abduction of a 10-year-old boy sparked mass street protests has been jailed indefinitely for public protection.
Michael Jackson tied up and repeatedly threatened to kill the terrified victim, who was held prisoner in a cupboard during a three-hour ordeal after being dragged into a flat in Oldbury, West Midlands.
Ordering Jackson, 50, to serve at least seven years before being eligible to apply for parole, Judge Martin Walsh described the kidnapping as “the stuff of every parent’s nightmare”.
Jackson pleaded guilty in May to charges of kidnap, sexual assault, false imprisonment and kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence in relation to the boy’s disappearance. He also admitted the abduction of a 10-year-old girl who he photographed at his flat around a month before the offences against the boy.
Opening the facts of the case, Debi Gould, prosecuting, said the boy was found after Jackson left the flat, intending to construct an alibi and return later to abuse his victim.
Miss Gould told the court: “The defendant said to (the boy), ‘Don’t bother screaming or you are dead – it’s time to die if you make a noise’.”
Jackson, who had clearly prepared for the attack in advance, put a pillowcase over the boy’s head and also told him he would never see his mother again.
Praising the boy for his courage and presence of mind in managing to alert a passer-by, Miss Gould said: “Nobody in this court can imagine the terror of such an experience for such a little boy.”
Jackson, who was originally called Albert English, had decorated a window of his flat with Christmas foil and an image of an angel, the court heard.
During mitigation, defence counsel John Attwood said Jackson, who was unemployed and receiving disability benefits, had previously attempted suicide and received treatment under the Mental Health Act.
