'It's like a kick in the guts'

Victims' anger as paedophile to be moved to open prison after only 18 months of jail sentence

- NEAL KEELING

A PAEDOPHILE who wrecked the lives of two boys is to be moved to an open prison, just 18 months into a seven-year jail sentence.

Predator Mark Edward North plied the boys, then aged 14 and 15, with food, beer, cigarettes and CDs in the 1990s, a jury at Manchester Crown Court heard last year.

He picked up both of them separately in Piccadilly Gardens. Within hours, he took them to his flat in the Northern Quarter where they were made to perform sexual acts in return for his "generosity".

The abuse continued for many months between 1996 and 1998. Tortured by the memory of what they had endured, both boys ended up leaving Greater Manchester.

Eventually, the two victims went to police in March 2019. North, was sentenced to seven years in prison in February 2022 after being convicted of nine historic counts of indecent assault on a male under 16.

He was found not guilty of two counts of raping a male under 16 and two further counts of indecent assault.