A paedophile who changed his name to Michael Jackson abducted, tied up and sexually assaulted a 10-year-old boy.
The 50-year-old’s identity was revealed today as reporting restrictions were lifted after previous sexual offence charges against him were dropped.
Jackson, who changed his name from Albert English to impress his wife, attacked the boy as he left his home to buy a drink from a shop last December, a court has heard.
The naked boy was found covered with Christmas decorations and wrapped in a sheet in Jackson’s flat in Oldbury, West Midlands, following a frantic two-hour search by police and family members.
A family friend saw the boy at a window of the flat shouting for help and called police, who were able to lift the boy out.
Jackson is facing an indefinite sentence for public protection after pleading guilty to the offence which sparked mass public protests in Oldbury, West Midlands, during a hearing at Wolverhampton Crown Court in May.
Jackson admitted charges of kidnap, sexual assault, false imprisonment and kidnap with intent to commit a sexual offence in relation to the boy’s disappearance.
The former pirate radio DJ will be sentenced later this month.
He was arrested last November after the boy was found at his ground-floor flat in Bristnall Hall Road, Oldbury.
Local people and police launched a frantic search for the boy after he disappeared while walking in the street and it is thought he was held captive for more than three hours.
During a hearing on May 11, the offender, who has previous convictions for sexual assault, also pleaded guilty to abducting a 10-year-old girl in the West Midlands in September last year.
Reporting restrictions had been imposed after Jackson pleaded not guilty to kidnapping, false imprisonment and indecently assaulting a woman in Dudley in 2003. The charges were later dropped.
But Debi Gould, prosecuting, told Judge Nicholas Webb they were now no longer proceeding with those charges and the restrictions forbidding the use of Jackson’s name could now be lifted.
Although the facts of the offences were not opened at today’s hearing, it is understood that the boy’s hands were bound before he managed to move towards a window of the flat, where he was spotted by a local woman searching for him.
Giving brief details of the offences committed against the male victim, prosecutor Debi Gould told the court: ‘The second of the children that was abducted – a young boy – was trussed up, was thrust into a cupboard, and was sexually assaulted.
‘They are very grave offences.’
A court heard previously how the 10-year-old was found by mum-of-11 Jean Masih, 49, standing at the window of a nearby flat wrapped in a sheet.
His brother and aunt had called at her home at around 10.30am asking for help in finding the youngster.
An hour later she was walking to nearby Tesco when she saw the boy through an open window and asked who he was.
She said the boy replied ‘please help I’ve been kidnapped’.
Speaking at the time Miss Masih said: ‘His brother told me he was missing.
‘I went round to see what I could see, people were around everywhere looking.
‘I looked up to this window and saw him there wrapped in a sheet.
‘He said ‘help me, I’ve been kidnapped’, I ran back to get the police and they came and picked him out of the ground floor window.
‘His arms looked like they were bound and he had a white sheet wrapped around his body. I asked who was in the house and he said “no-one, the man has gone and left me”.
‘I told him to wait and I ran to call the police from his parents house. I was really shaken up by it all.’
Debi Gould, prosecuting, said the question of dangerousness had to be a real issue in the case which could result in the imposition of an indeterminate prison term for Jackson.
Jackson has made 20 previous court appearances for 70 offences, mainly burglary, theft and other dishonesty.
His ex-wife Lisa Grose, who has an A4-size cut-out of the singer Michael Jackson sitting in the kitchen of her home in Rowley Regis, West Midlands, said after a previous hearing in February : ‘I haven’t had anything to do with Michael since we divorced in 2000.
‘We got married in Birmingham in 1995. It was a low key affair with just friends and family.
‘But it didn’t work out. My life has moved on since then.
‘But this has all come as a bit of a shock to say the very least.’
The incident sparked outrage amongst people living in the area and a heated demonstration outside the flats prompted the Adullam Homes Housing Association, who provide homes for vulnerable people, to rehouse all the tenants.
It also lead to the formation of the Sandwell United Parents Group who began a campaign to get better protection for children from paedophiles.
Jackson was remanded in custody until sentencing on October 29.
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