Former UKIP regional chairman Peter Entwistle jailed for grooming children

Peter Entwistle, 52 had targeted children as young as 12

The Independent reports: A former Ukip regional chairman has been jailed for almost five years for grooming children as young as 12 and possessing almost 200,000 indecent images of children.

Peter Entwistle, 52, called himself the ‘Naughty Doctor’ as he targeted pupils online using MSN Messenger and other social networks. The former chairman of the Bury branch of the UK Independence Party used an explicit picture of two women for his profile and spoke to a 13-year-old girl and a boy of 12, who he thought was girl, asking them to commit sexual acts for his own satisfaction.

Bolton Crown Court heard that Entwistle was able to help establish the Bury branch of Ukip in 2011 and become chairman despite having a criminal conviction for indecent exposure – he flashed a woman in the 1980s. Entwistle was jailed for four years and eight months on Monday after pleading guilty to 21 counts at an earlier hearing, including possessing and distributing indecent images of children as well as inciting and the attempted inciting of children to commit sexual acts.