Convicted murderer gets second life sentence after daylight abduction of teenager
A convicted murderer who recorded voice memos about a planned “abduction point” has been handed a second life sentence after kidnapping a 15-year-old girl in
A convicted murderer who recorded voice memos about a planned “abduction point” has been handed a second life sentence after kidnapping a 15-year-old girl in broad daylight and later sexually assaulting her in Greater Manchester.
Paul Sharpe, 56, bundled the teenager into a car in Altrincham on 18 May and kept her captive for eight and a half hours before police rescued her the following day, Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard.
Recorded plans before the attack
Jurors heard Sharpe had visited the area months earlier and used voice notes to map out where he intended to strike. The recordings, described in court as detailing his planned abduction point, pointed to careful preparation rather than a spontaneous attack. The case has raised fresh alarm around the use of ordinary consumer technology — in this instance, voice memos — to document criminal planning.
Sharpe, from Portswood in Stockport, had already been jailed in 2001 for murdering an ex-partner. He was released on licence in 2013 after serving the minimum term of 11 years on that life sentence.
Fear, captivity and DNA evidence
The teenager was taken in the early evening and held inside Sharpe’s car overnight. Court details said she feared she would be raped and killed. In a striking act of self-protection, she tore out strands of her own hair so that investigators would have DNA proof she had been inside the vehicle.
That evidence, the court heard, helped confirm what happened during the long hours before her rescue. Police found her the following day.
Second life term
Sharpe was sentenced to life imprisonment again, with a minimum term of eight years before he can be considered for release by the Parole Board.
The punishment comes nearly a quarter-century after his first murder conviction and underscores a persistent question for justice systems worldwide: how to manage offenders with the most serious histories once they are back in the community. For police and courts, the case also highlights the importance of digital traces — even crude recordings kept on a phone — in building a timeline of intent.
The court heard that Sharpe had been in the area months before the abduction. The case now returns to the record with one stark detail still ringing through it: a teenager left to survive by her own quick thinking, and a convicted killer who documented the crime before he carried it out.
