May 2016

Convicted sex offender Robert Sumner now living in Fallowfield, Mossside area of Manchester

Robert Sumner has grown his hair long and is active on Facebook under a fake account

October 2010

Judge warns of Facebook danger after paedophile terrorises schoolgirl

A paedophile terrorised a schoolgirl on the social networking website Facebook after duping her into accepting him as a ‘friend’.

Robert Sumner stalked the teenager online and bombarded her with texts demanding she meet him.

When she refused he told her he knew where she lived – and threatened to rape her, Manchester Crown Court heard.

The terrified youngster’s plight came to the attention of school staff after a pal bravely tried to warn the predator off using her own Facebook page.

Judge Iain Hamilton said the girl’s mother had ‘wrongly’ allowed her daughter access to the social networking site and said the case highlighted the dangers of youngsters using them.

But he spared Sumner a prison sentence because he had served the equivalent of 14 months on remand.

Sumner, 26, of Longsight, Manchester, sent his ‘naive’ victim a friend request in January. Although she didn’t know him she accepted – because his other friends were schoolgirls.

By posing as a 15-year-old boy he persuaded the girl to disclose her phone number and the area she lived in, and began pestering her to meet him at a cinema.

The youngster’s mother, who policed her Facebook page, became concerned about Sumner’s messages and e-mailed him demanding to know who he was.

He ordered the girl to say he was a pupil at a Greater Manchester secondary school.

Benjamin Myers, prosecuting, said: ‘His communications took on an overbearing and eventually a menacing nature as he sought to pinpoint exactly where she lived and threatened to come and rape her.’