Three years' jail for van abduction bids

A door-to-door sofa salesman was jailed for three years today for trying to abduct a young girl and boy in his van outside schools in Wolverhampton.

Judge Michael Dudley told Patrick Sheridan: "Your actions were very frightening indeed. It was only because these two have been brought up not to speak to strangers that they decided to run away.

"These are very serious offences and because you went to trial – the children had to relive the experiences."

The 62-year-old tried to lure the 12-year-old boy into his van with offers of sweets, before later claiming in court that the child had misheard him and he was actually trying to sell him a three-piece suite. He approached the boy on April 1 last year and then targeted an 11-year-old girl on October 7 as she left school.

Sheridan, of First Avenue, Low Hill, told her: "Why don't you come back to my house, and we'll lie on the sofa together." He again claimed the girl had misheard his strong Irish accent, and he had actually asked her to buy a sofa.

After a trial, the salesman was found guilty on July 16 of two charges of attempted abduction. He was found not guilty of a third charge of attempted abduction.

The jury heard how Sheridan wound down his van window and asked the girl to go back to his house, before she ran off to her mother.

The girl told Wolverhampton Crown Court she felt "scared and weird" after the incident, and her mother said she arrived at the car "really, really panicked".

Her mother added: "I followed him and pulled up at the side of his van. I was effing and blinding and said 'How dare you say this to my daughter'."

The defendant targeted the boy as he walked with a friend. He told the boy: "Why don't you get in the back of the van and you can have some sweets for free."

Mr Robert Cowley, defending, said it was possible the children had misheard.