A convicted murderer abducted a 15-year-old girl at knifepoint in broad daylight and sexually assaulted her during a ‘terrifying’ eight-hour hostage ordeal.
Paul Sharpe, 56, tied up the teenager by her hands and feet, before plying her with alcohol and performing a sex act on himself.
It has since emerged that the former DJ was jailed for life in March 2001 for murdering a woman he seduced via his radio phone-in.
It is unclear exactly when he was released from prison, but in May this year Sharpe was free to snatch the girl off a street, in the upmarket Cheshire town of Bowden, near Manchester.
Sharpe got the teenager in a headlock and forced her into his car. He then drove her to a car park at Manchester Airport, where he plied her with alcohol and sexually assaulted her.
At one point he masturbated while touching the teenage victim’s feet.
The girl’s ‘protracted’ ordeal only ended after her mother reported her missing and police, who reviewed CCTV, managed to identify Sharpe’s car.
Officers found the pair in another car park, at the Cottons Hotel and Spa in Knutsford, Cheshire, around 3am on May 19 – eight hours after the girl was abducted.
The Crown Prosecution Service said Sharpe told police he ‘had been feeling bad’ and ‘kidnapped the girl thinking it would be easier than kidnapping an adult’.
Paul Sharpe subjected a 15-year-old to an eight-hour hostage ordeal during which he made her drink alcohol and masturbated while touching her feet
He kidnapped the girl on Bradgate Road in Bowden, a suburb of Altrincham, Greater Manchester, as she walked alone
‘He said he wasn’t thinking clearly and his intention was to release her when it was light, then end his own life,’ a CPS spokesman added.
Warped Sharpe claimed his motives weren’t sexual but admitted being aroused by smelling the girl’s feet.
He claimed he targeted the child because her father owed him money, although previous reports suggested the abduction was ‘random’ and the girl did not know her kidnapper.
On Friday Sharpe pleaded guilty at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court to six offences, including kidnapping, sexual assault, sexual activity in the presence of a child and making threats with a bladed article.
He also admitted intent to commit a sexual offence and administering a noxious substance ‘with intent to injure, aggrieve or annoy’.
In March 2001 Sharpe was jailed for life for strangling mother-of-one Sarah Widdup, 28, after she tried to dump him.
The pair struck up a relationship when the beautician called a late-night show that Sharpe ran on Tower FM, in Bolton, under the name Paul Shaw.
They arranged a dinner date and embarked on a passionate romance, but he ‘flipped’ and killed her when she tried to break it off.
Ms Widdup was murdered by Sharpe, who she had been dating, in October 2000
Former DJ Paul Sharpe was jailed for life in 2001 for the murder of Ms Widdup. He was released but on Friday admitted kidnapping and sexually assaulting a teenage girl
The following day callous Sharpe picked up Ms Widdup’s 10-year-old son from school and dropped him at a neighbour’s home, before going on the run.
Ms Widdup’s body was discovered by her father at her home in Breightmet, Bolton, on October 14, 2000.
Sharpe, then of Bury, Greater Manchester, handed himself into police four days later. He had tried but failed to take an overdose of paracetamol.
Hannah Gee, a senior prosecutor for the CPS, said: ‘Paul Sharpe, a convicted murderer, kidnapped an innocent girl at knifepoint in broad daylight.
‘In this terrifying incident, the victim was held captive for eight hours while Sharpe forced her to drink alcohol and sexually assaulted her.
‘Sharpe gave no thought to the impact his actions, for his own depraved reasons, would have on his victim.
‘Although his guilty pleas today have spared her from the ordeal of a trial, I would like to thank the girl, and her family, for supporting this prosecution and ensuring this dangerous offender is back where he belongs.’
Sharpe will be sentenced at Minshull Street Crown Court on September 4.
