He told her ‘I am your groomer and you are my child victim’
Martin Naylor Courts and legal affairs correspondent
17:57, 05 Dec 2025
Hope met the victim four times in Southglade Park, Bestwood(Image: Google)
A child sex offender groomed and manipulated a young Nottingham teen, sharing his rape and violence fantasies with her.
Nottingham Crown Court heard how Nathan Hope told the girl “I am your groomer and you are my child victim” as he drove more than 100 miles from his home to meet her in a city park on a number of occasions.
The parents of the victim told how they feel their daughter is “a stranger in her own home” as a result of what she was subjected to.
Now Hope, a father-of-one, has been jailed for the first time in his life at the age of 34.
Sending him to prison for three years Judge Julie Warburton said: “(You) normalised paedophilia, speaking about (your) own predatory interest in children as something that was normal to a 13-year-old child.
“You deliberately sought her out and over four months you groomed her until she clearly became emotionally attached to you. You told her you were interested in her in a paedophilic way.
“You exposed her to violent and explicit material referencing what you would like to do to her, referring to yourself as ‘a predator’ and ‘a paedo’.
“It is clear from what I have heard this has had a devastating effect on her and her life has completely changed – she is grappling with anxiety.
“The relationship was brought to an end before any sexual activity took place but your stated intention was to go much further given the opportunity.”
Richard Thatcher, prosecuting, said the offending took place between November 1, 2023 and March 27, 2024.
The prosecutor said: “Effectively this concerns the grooming and exploitation of (a 13-year-old girl) and there was a significant age gap between them.
“Over a relatively long period of time he effectively manipulated this young child. He found her from a YouTube channel where she was advertising an online game.
“They moved their chat to other forums and he told her he was attracted to the children which, in her words, ‘freaked her out’.
“By February 2024 they were speaking on a daily basis and she knew he was 32, with a child and was in a difficult relationship and he knew she was 13.
“He drove from his home to Southglade Park (in Bestwood), more than 100 miles apart, where they met and talked for a few hours.
“They met again twice more over the next few weeks where he kissed her on the lips.
“Between March 23 and 27 he talked to her about rape, grooming children, sexual violence, bruising her throat, paedophilia, squeezing her until she passed out and biting her neck.
“He sent her a message saying ‘hate me and I will find another kid’ and ‘this paedo is owned by you’ speaking about himself.
“He went on to say ‘I am your groomer and you are my child victim’.”
Mr Thatcher said the mother of the girl found the messages on her daughter’s Kindle and alerted the police and the defendant was arrested, answering “no comment” to the questions he was asked.
In a victim impact statement the teen said she had lost friends as a result of what happened and “now feels the odd one out now,” “lonely,” and that “the thought of him makes me feel awful about myself”.
The parents of the young teen read their own impact statements to the court.
In his, her father said: “This has been the worst 18 months of my life and has had a catastrophic effect on the family as a whole..
“I feel like she is not my child anymore and a stranger in her own house. He manipulated her and changed her as a person and he is the one to blame for this.”
In her statement, the girl’s mother said: “This has taken a huge toll on our family’s everyday life. I feel we are living with a stranger not knowing what she thinks or feels.
“She has withdrawn herself from everyone and I feel he has done this so he can take control and so he is the one she needs.”
Hope, of Chatham Street, Leigh, Greater Manchester, pleaded guilty to charges of meeting a child following grooming, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and child abduction.
He has no previous convictions.
Tom Welshman, mitigating, said his client had pleaded guilty at the earliest opportunity.
He said: “I am not going to suggest these messages were anything other than disgusting and unlawful, these were horrible and unpleasant messages but they were messages.
“Others pull up videos of abuse and show them to children and this did not happen in this case.
“There are references which show a different side to him, a good side. He accepts there is something really wrong here.
“At the time of the offences he was not in a good place not having much contact with his daughter and was a lonely person.”
As well as the three-year prison term, the judge placed Hope on the sex offender register for life and handed him both a lifetime sexual harm prevention order and a lifetime restraining order.
Nottinghamshire Police does not have a custody photograph of the defendant.
