Man wrongly arrested after being 'misidentified' by paedophile hunters outside Salford Asda store

A man was wrongly arrested outside of an Asda store by an unnamed vigilante group after being misidentified as a man who was messaging teenage girls.

The vigilantes had arranged to meet 39-year-old Michael Chapman outside of an Asda store in Salford in December 2021, after he had sent sexualised messages to five social media accounts, which he believed belonged to teenage girls.

However, when members of the vigilante group arrived at the store they picked out a man who they believed to be Chapman.

Despite being entirely innocent, the misidentified man was arrested.

Chapman, from Eccles, was eventually arrested on 5 January 2022. He was then charged with five counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, three counts of causing a child to watch a sexual act and two counts of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

At his hearing at Manchester Crown Court, Judge Sarah Johnston ordered an investigation to be carried out to find out what went wrong and how the innocent man was misidentified by the vigilante group.

She said: "It seems to me to be a situation which is going to arise again, if steps are not taken to ensure that these cases are investigated properly by those who are responsible for such investigations."

Prosecutors told the court how Chapman had been messaging the five "decoy" accounts over a six week period. The vigilante group told him that they were 13 and 14-year-old girls.

During the chats he sent videos of himself masturbating to the accounts.

In the conversations, the idea of meeting up was raised. Chapman suggested a location as being an Asda store in Eccles.

Chapman was summoned to court in September 2023, after analysis of his phone was not deemed to be "high priority", the court heard.

He pleaded guilty to all charges.

Defending, Ellen Shaw said Chapman had no previous convictions and had not committed any further offences following the delays which were not his fault. Chapman was sentenced to two years, suspended for two years, and ordered to carry out 200 hours of unpaid work and complete 15 rehabilitation activity requirement days.He was also told he must carry out a sexual offences program, which the judge said was 'the surest way of ensuring that conduct is not repeated'.

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