Predatory paedophile jailed for grooming and abusing children

A man who groomed and sexually abused several children, sometimes for payment, has been jailed for 20 years.

Michael Lymath, 43, from Southport, made contact with the teenagers, a boy and five girls, via social media and online games. He was aware that they were all children and began by talking about everyday things.

He would make them feel that he was their friend and that he had genuine feelings for them.

But the chat eventually became sexual and he would both send indecent images of himself to the victims and demand explicit images from them.

He would often send the victims money and vouchers for the images or promise money if they stopped sending them and he wanted them to continue.

His messages would become bullying and threatening if any of the victims threatened to block him or stop contact. Many of them did eventually block him and end all contact.

He met some of the victims in person, travelling around the country to do so, and raped one of them in a transit van he owned.

He would offer to pay for taxis to bring them to him and take them back home.

The abuse came to light when one of the victims told her mother what had been happening.

He was brought in for questioning on 8 December 2024 and his home and van were searched. Several devices were found, along with clothing, and handwritten notes to and from Lymath, providing an insight into his warped and perverse intentions.

More than 2,450 indecent images were found on his devices, 13 of them in the extreme category.

He was charged with 34 counts, including meeting a child following sexual grooming, paying a child for sexual services, sexual assault, possession of indecent images and rape of a child.

At a pre-trial preparation hearing at Liverpool Crown Court on 23 February 2025, he pleaded guilty to 23 counts. At a hearing on 1 April 2025, he pleaded guilty to a further 4 counts.

Today, 2 May 2025, at Liverpool Crown Court, he was sentenced to 20 years in prison with eight years on extended licence.

The sentencing judge described Lymath’s case as one of the most serious of its type that the court had seen. The judge described Lymath as “every parent’s nightmare” and went on describe his actions as “predatory”, “manipulative” and “monstrous”.

Senior Crown Prosecutor Edward Rattigan, a specially trained prosecutor in CPS Mersey-Cheshire’s Rape and Serious Sexual Offences (RASSO) unit, said: “Michael Lymath is a predatory paedophile.

“He lived in Southport but travelled as far as Cumbria and Nottinghamshire to commit his offences against multiple children, and gave his victims money, vouchers and jewellery in order to groom them.

“None of his victims knew him before he began talking to them online, where he would befriend them using either social media platforms or gaming applications to talk to random children.

“One particular victim told her mother and this set the wheels in motion for Lymath to be brought to justice. If she hadn’t done this, the offending may not ever have come to light.

“This method of meeting children highlights the dangers that parents with children owning mobile phones and having access to social media need to be aware of.

“The Crown Prosecution Service would like to commend the courage of all of the victims in this case for co-operating with the police and the prosecution. Convicting Lymath would not have been possible without them.”