Michael McShane - Repeat Sex Offender - On a Rampage

He was also said to have a staggering record of more than 250 offences following convictions in criminal courts all over the country.

A CONVICTED sex offender seen exposing himself outside a city primary school has been jailed for two and a half years.

Scotsman Michael McShane already had a record going back 20 years for indecent assault and indecent exposure before he showed up at Danescourt Primary School, Cardiff, in January this year. There he scared mothers when he picked up a two-year-old girl, crouched down to other toddlers in a double buggy, tried to get into a car and finally undid his trousers.

The toddler he held was snatched back by her mother who told Cardiff Crown Court she quickly realised the man was not known to either her or any other mothers outside the school.

McShane took hold of one woman by her hips as she stood between him and two other children, before walking towards the school where he approached a parked car and tried the door handle.

He was unable to open it because the childminder inside had seen him coming and had locked herself inside.

But minutes afterwards, the jury was told, she had to get out to collect her own daughter and saw McShane turn towards her, unzip his trousers and expose himself.

Yesterday, a jury took just moments to unanimously convict him of two counts of common assault and one of exposure. The court heard he had already pleaded guilty to being in breach of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order put in place previously to protect the public from him. The breaches included going near a school and being drunk in a public place.

He was also said to have a staggering record of more than 250 offences following convictions in criminal courts all over the country. Originally from Glasgow, he had no fixed address in Cardiff at the time and is believed to have been travelling around the UK.

Through his lawyers, he suggested the mums at Danescourt had been mistaken when they picked him out in a video identification parade. But the mother who had been forced to lock herself in her car said: “There was no mistake, I saw him clearly; his face was right up against the glass, terrifying me.”

McShane was arrested at a nearby Somerfield store after two mothers followed him first to the Radyr Court pub then to the shop.

"25% of all sex offenders re-offend within 15 years"
.........Sarah Tofte