Holding hands, the women he made stand on street corners as teenagers were finally heard

‘You groomed me… you put a gun to my head,’

A paedophile who groomed and coerced teenage girls into sex work watched on as they held hands in court and bravely spoke of their ordeals.

Christopher Oates, 45, began exploiting his victims – now adults – when he was in his mid 20s. He coerced one of the girls, who was vulnerable, into thinking she was his boyfriend, Manchester Crown Court heard.

He gave her alcohol, drugs and money to buy clothes and trainers. Oates told her he ‘loved her’, before encouraging her into sex work.

“You know you’re so beautiful, you would make a killing,” he told the teenager. “I’ll watch you. It’s only sex.”

After one incident that resulted in a confrontation, she said she wanted to go home, Oates dragged her down an alleyway, attacked her and held a gun to her head, saying: “You do as I say, you’re mine now.”

Oates then ordered her to go to her ‘spot’. “He was the one adult in her life who did not try to protect her,” prosecutor Gwen Henshaw said.

The court heard the girl was in care and had been in regular contact with Oates while under local authority guardianship. Investigations led police to a second teenage girl who had also been exploited by Oates.

She only knew him by his nickname ‘Nails’ due to his long little fingernail, which she said he used to take cocaine. He would take her to her ‘spot’ at least once a week to carry out sex acts for money.

The court heard that during one incident, Oates organised for both girls to have sex with an older man while filming it.

He is the first person to have been convicted following the launch, in 2019, of GMP’s Operation Greenjacket in 2019 into historic sex offences.

Bravely reading her victim impact statement, the first victim, now an adult, said: “One of the hardest pills to swallow has always been ‘how?’. How can one human being make another do something so extreme?

“To have to read letters I wrote idolising this man, professing my love for him, and telling everybody that would listen he was my boyfriend is heartbreaking.

“The trust I remember feeling, the love and how special I must have felt at a time when I felt completely alone in the world is what I’ve had to accept is the ‘how’. I would have done anything, and you used that for your own sick advantage.

“You groomed me, you put a gun to my head, and not only did you abuse me, but you let other men, too.”

The second victim, who held hands with the other woman throughout the hearing, told the court: “I was bullied and manipulated and the person responsible for this was Christopher Oates.

“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 court heard that in November 2012, a search warrant was carried out under the Misuse of Drugs Act at Oates parents’ home, where he was also living.

Officers recovered a Nokia phone, cash and a small amount of cannabis. Days later he flew from Heathrow to Bangkok.

In the following days, his phone was searched and 130 indecent images of children were found, along with internet searches including ‘illegal sick kiddy porn’.

In 2021, detectives wanted to speak to Oates, but his passport records indicated he was in Thailand. Investigations later revealed he had been using a passport under a false name and had travelled to the Dominican Republic.

In 2023, after moving to Stockport, a further search revealed a cannabis grow with 33 plants; the false passport; and a fake driving licence.

“Officers discovered a makeshift bed next to the grow, and a Lenovo tablet,” the prosecutor said. “An examination revealed further indecent images of a child, and images he had taken himself of a child aged between 12 and 14. These were split screen images, and the defendant’s face could be seen.”

Examinations of the tablet also showed online searched for ‘sex dolls childlike’. The court heard Oates had been accepted into private Facebook groups which demonstrated a sexual interest in children.

Rebecca Penfold, defending, said the defendant had elderly parents and the impending sentence would mean he would not be able to ‘say goodbye’.

She also said in terms of sentencing him as a ‘dangerous offender’ under sentencing provisions, there had been a de-escalation in sex offending.

Judge Elizabeth Nicholls will sentence Oates, of Tannock Road, Stockport, tomorrow (Thursday, June 26).