UPDATE: |’Dangerous’ sex offender, 25, who targeted young girls leaving school dies in prison News

Steven Collins was caught out after two of his victims caught him filming under their school skirts in Tameside

A ‘dangerous’ sex offender who preyed on young girls on their way home from school in Tameside has died behind bars, it has been confirmed.

Steven Collins was jailed for seven years and six months in 2022 after pleading guilty to three counts of sexual assault. The then 23-year-old had ‘deliberately targeted’ girls in uniform, attacked two teenagers on buses and another outside a shop, threatening to kill one girl and following two of them home.

Collins was caught out after two of his victims managed to take pictures of him as he tried to film under their school skirts in Tameside.

The Prisons and Probation Ombudsman has confirmed that Collins, now 25, died at Wymott Prison, near Leyland, on March 26. An investigation into his death has been launched.

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In 2022, the court heard how Collins had sat in front of one of his victims on a bus and then moved to sit next to her. He put his hand close to her thigh and threatened her, saying “if you carry on moving, I’ll kill you”.

Collins then began to sexually assault the girl. He then removed her underwear and put them in his bag. They were later found at his house in a clear, sealed plastic bag when he was arrested, LancsLive reports.

During a subsequent attack, Collins sexually assaulted a different 16-year-old girl on a bus. After she got off the bus he followed her and when she got home she told her mum what had happened.

Less than an hour later Collins, from Burnley in Lancashire, began following a 14-year-old girl who was in her school uniform around a supermarket. He knelt behind her in the queue with his phone in his hand and then followed the girl as she left the store.

Collins then put his hand up the girl’s skirt and sexually assaulted her. He continued to follow her until she had gone inside her house.

When Collins was jailed, in October 2022, Judge Matthew Corbett-Jones told him: “In each offence, you preyed upon young girls in order to meet your own distorted sexual urges. The effect of your offending on these young girls was to cause them considerable upset and distress at the time, but also there has been ongoing upset and distress.

“These young girls, their families and the public will rightly be concerned about the risk you present as a result of what you have done. Your offending is aggravated by the fact there were repeated offences committed during a period of around four months, and that there was the deliberate targeting of these young girls.

“There was a clear and significant disparity in your ages. You also resorted to threats and there are worrying features of your offending such as repeated attempts to video record victims. Your diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) does not excuse your offending.”

After he was jailed, Detective Constable Victoria Eronini from Greater Manchester Police praised the victims and said: “Without their help, a very dangerous man would still be preying on young females on the streets of Greater Manchester.”

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