News, Manchester
GMPA “gaping hole” in the law meant a convicted paedophile could lead activities for children where he used the access to abuse them, a charity has said.
Nicholas Moxham ran parties in Manchester but did not need to have to undergo a Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check, a common test for people working with young people which would have revealed his previous conviction, because he was self-employed.
Moxham, who was detained for four years in 1992 after wounding a woman and received a caution in 1997 for indecent exposure, was jailed for at least 19 years after being convicted of a series of sex offences against women and children in 2024, some of which took place at the parties.
Campaigning charity Freedom from Abuse said the law should be changed to ensure “anyone” working with children underwent DBS checks.
Moxham ran party experiences involving laser tag, zorbing, go-karting and science demonstrations through companies he owned in buildings, outdoor areas and woodland he had hired from Parrs Wood High School.
Police discovered that in 2016 he had lured three children who were playing laser tag to a hidden area of the woodland being filmed by a camera he had hidden in leaves and exposed himself and acted indecently while their backs were turned.
Officers also found that between 2018 and 2019, he hid a motion-activated camera in the toilets of an outbuilding that was used by both children and adults attending his events.
None of those filmed by Moxham have been identified by police.
He also kept devices containing indecent images of children and animals in a storage unit at the school.
‘Children being harmed’
Teachers and other employees who work with children and are unsupervised by senior staff must have an enhanced DBS, which looks for criminal records and ensures they have not been banned from working with children.
However, anyone employing themselves through their own company is not legally required to have a DBS certificate, though self-employed people can obtain checks by applying through agencies, professional organisations or specialist companies.
Some parents were usually present at Moxham’s events, but regulations mean that only the presence of senior staff negates the need for an enhanced DBS certificate in such circumstances for anyone not working for their own company.
Sarah, whose name has been changed to protect her identity, booked Moxham for one of her son’s birthday parties.
She said most parents “just assume that these people have been checked and that it is safe”.
“I’d trusted him, it was at a school, it was a registered company, I’d done the research, I’d looked at the reviews,” she said.
“What more can you do?”
Freedom from Abuse’s Marilyn Hawes said “anyone” working with children should need to undergo checks for previous convictions or cautions.
“It’s a gaping hole that children are falling down and being harmed,” Ms Hawes said.
Rebecca Miller from law firm Farleys said DBS checks were “there for employers” and in circumstances where self-employed people had been booked, it was “essentially left to the parents or guardians” to make sure that those providing the service had been “appropriately checked”.
The Home Office said it would not comment on individual cases but is understood to be looking at extending the scope of enhanced criminal records checks to self-employed people who work closely with children and vulnerable adults.
GMPWhen Moxham was sentenced at Manchester Crown Court in July 2024, Judge John Potter said he was a “determined and predatory sexual offender” who used his businesses “as a means to sexually exploit children”.
The judge also said his “random attack” in 1992 had been motivated by his “anger” towards women, because of their “disinterest” in him, and that Moxham had shown he had “a capacity to cause very serious harm”.
He added that the school should review whether “appropriate checks were made” before his business was allowed to operate there.
Head teacher Mark McElwee said Moxham “ran an independent business that was not connected to our school beyond the fact that his business held events for the wider community when the school was closed on premises he hired out from us”.
He said “all correct procedures” were followed in relation to the site hire and “no concerns were raised with us in relation to this, either at the time or during a subsequent safeguarding review of our lettings procedures once the offending came to light”.
He added that the school had been “shocked and appalled by the offences committed” and “additional requirements for hire arrangements” had since been brought in.
