Police look into case of 'British Fritzl' paedophile

Greater Manchester Police are looking into the case of a paedophile who repeatedly raped girls in Manchester and kept some of his victims hidden in a squalid 'hidey hole'.

Michael Dunn made a secret room behind the fridge at his home in Manchester where he kept his underaged victim. His brother described him as 'pure evil'.

Dunn carried out repeated attacks on four females, three of whom were underage. The crimes ­spanned five decades and at least five ­locations.

Three of Dunn's young victims were sexually assaulted in Manchester, two of them were raped. He also repeatedly raped a woman. She and an underage girl were kept locked up.

In other incidents in North Yorkshire, he repeatedly raped and attacked the woman and one of the girls, who was over 18 when she eventually reported it to the police.

A jury heard Dunn kept the house dark with the curtains shut while his victims were inside. They were forced to have sex "when he wanted" or they would be beaten.

The case is not dissimilar to that of Josef Fritzl, the Austrian who kept his daughter as a prisoner for 24 years as a sex slave.

Dunn's secret hole in Manchester was behind a fridge which was guarded by German shepherd dogs and camouflaged with a bag of dust and a false wall.

Greater Manchester Police says it is looking into "issues" surrounding the case.

A court heard two of Dunn's victims were treated as "possessions to do with what he wanted".

“He kept them locked up when he wanted. He had sex when he wanted,” said Prosecutor Richard Bennett. “He was paranoid and short-tempered.” Mr Bennett added: “Michael Dunn is a violent, controlling and sexually abusive man.”

He said one of the girls had previously been a victim of sexual abuse. She had been raped and beaten by another man.

“The Crown say he took advantage of that situation for his own sexual ­gratification,” Mr Bennett told jurors.

He said Dunn groomed, molested and raped her as a vulnerable child in Manchester. He later imprisoned her at a home in Redcar and attacked her, punching her in the face, chest and stomach and grabbing her throat.

In one instance he beat her up, breaking down a door when she tried to escape, leaving her in a "bloodied mess".

The young victim tried to kill herself with an overdose, the jury heard. Dunn's crimes were discovered when she went to police as an adult in 2014.

At the same time, Dunn imprisoned a second victim who he subjected to repeated violence, leaving her with black eyes. She submitted to sex in fear after he threatened to hit her if she did not.

Dunn also groomed a second underage girl decades ago. He gave her alcohol and cigarettes before sexually assaulting her. She made a complaint against him, which he denied, and he was not prosecuted as the allegation went no further at the time.

More victims stories came to light years later. Another pre-teenage girl tried to forget her experiences when he told her "it's what boyfriends and girlfriends do". But when she met again when she was 21, she challenged him. "I'll have you done for slander," he replied.

Another child victim alerted police in 1993 after she a number of beatings.

Police had visited Dunn's home in Manchester in search for the runaway girl while she was locked in the hidey hole. They knocked eight times.

Dunn's brother, Robert, said: “My brother’s a skip rat. He deserves all he gets. He’s pure evil and lost the right to call me brother decades ago.”

• Response to the case from the NSPCC:

A court was told one relative, who did not wish to be named, said: “He was strange and an idiot, I had as little to do with him as possible. I remember him buying property and digging a hole beneath the living room floor.

“He said at the time it was a bomb shelter which seemed bizarre.”

The current owner of the house where the hidey hole is located said police turned up last year and searched the property. The owner said when he moved in 20 years ago the terraced home was covered in security cameras and lights.

He said police took photographs of the large hole, which appeared to have been created to allow access from outside the house into the kitchen. He said he'd heard rumours of children coming in and out.

Dunn denied 19 charges and claimed the allegations were all false.

After two days of deliberations a jury convicted him of 16 charges - 10 of rape, three of indecent assault and three of false imprisonment.

He was cleared of one charge of rape, one of making a threat to kill and one of inflicting grievous bodily harm.

Cleveland Police Detective Sergeant Dave Pettrick said: “Some of the victims were kept in line through Dunn’s extreme violence or even through the fear of violence and he had complete and ­absolute control over their lives.”

Dunn has been remanded in custody until sentencing.