A twisted paedophile has been jailed for 16 years for
grooming and raping five schoolgirls over a ten-year period. Luis Moreno, now 66, and has a ‘hunchback’ spinal deformity.
Manchester Crown Court heard his five young victims lived in
fear of the child molester, who
boasted of being an adept martial artist
despite his disability.
Moreno, of Aquarius Street, Hulme, abused his victims ‘week
in, week out’, the court heard. But it’s only now, after one, and then four
other victims spoke to police, that he has finally been brought to justice, Manchester
Evening News reports.
Moreno denied nine rape charges and eleven charges of
indecent assault, many of which were specimen counts reflecting multiple
attacks, but was convicted of them all by a jury of seven women and five men.
An indefinite harm prevention order restricts Moreno’s
contact with children following his release, the date of which will not come
automatically at the halfway point, but will instead be determined by the
Parole Board because of the nature of his conviction.
Sending down Moreno, who is believed to be suffering from
prostate cancer, Judge Andrew Blake told him: “You had groomed these girls to
do whatever you wanted them to do and they never told anyone. Moreno was jailed
at Manchester Crown Court
" You didn’t need to threaten them, although they were
frightened of you because they knew you had practised martial arts. You had
these young girls in your thrall and at your beck and call.”
The girls were just nine when Moreno began luring them to
his home. After molesting them he gave them cash he made from selling pirated
feature films and pornographic movies on a market stall. Over time, he
escalated his abuse to repeatedly raping them. Traumatised by their ordeals,
the complainants have battled personal problems in adulthood.
In a victim impact statement read by prosecutor Michael
Maher, one of the complainants said: “I will never get back the childhood that
was taken from me. I feel that I have been broken as a person.”
Speaking of the victims and their families, the judge said:
“They had sympathy for you because of your deformed spine and various health
problems. I have no doubt you realised this and took advantage. I have no doubt
that you homed in on vulnerable girls. This behaviour continued week in week
in, week out for years.” Speaking after the case, Detective Constable Mark
Watson said: “Moreno is a predatory paedophile.
“He would systematically abuse them (his victims) on a
weekly basis, always in the same way and often while other girls were in the
house, sometimes he would also film his abuse.
“The catalogue of his abuse is sickening and his charge
sheet is one of the largest I have ever had the misfortune of dealing with.
“The scope of his abuse is demonstrated by the sheer number
of counts of sexual assault and rape that he has been convicted of.
“I cannot imagine what these young girls must have been
through and I have no doubt that Manchester is a safer place as a result of
this reprehensible man being behind bars.
“I hope that this sentence demonstrates to the victims of
these crimes that we will fight to achieve justice on their behalf.”
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