Stephen McLoughlin believed he was speaking to two schoolgirls aged 13 and 12
00:01, 03 Apr 2026Updated 08:25, 03 Apr 2026
Stephen McLaughlin, 59 and of Kirkby, sentenced to four years in prison for a series of child sex offences(Image: Merseyside Police)
A sex offender who stabbed himself in the neck after being outed by an online group has vowed to never own a computer again. Stephen McLoughlin, 59, sent sexually explicit messages to two online accounts he believed were two schoolgirls, “Maddie and Summer”, who were aged 13 and 12 respectively.
But the reality was McLoughlin, of Pitsmead Road in Kirkby, was communicating for a number of months with a group who used the name TFN, an acronym that stood for Travelled From Nottingham. The case drew extraordinary online attention when a video of McLoughlin was broadcasted online by the group and showed the grandad-of-two pull out a knife and stab himself in the neck outside a Merseyside Police station on August 26, 2022.
McLoughlin, who maintained he was messaging the account merely as “a joke”, was convicted of a series of child sexual offences following a trial at Bolton Crown Court in February this year. Returning to the same court to be sentenced today, Thursday, the sex offender was told by the judge: “There is no doubt how far you were willing to go with this ‘child’ if you had the opportunity to do so.”
The viral video of McLoughlin outside Kirkby police station showed the confronted man reach into his car and pull out a knife before cutting across his throat. While still holding the knife, McLoughlin was punched to the side of the head before collapsing to the ground. The man holding the camera said “get an ambulance, he’s cut his throat” while McLoughlin’s screams could be heard before the disturbing video came to an end.
The court heard between April and August 2022 McLoughlin, “a married man with a family, a butcher by trade and a man of previous good character”, had carried out a series of online communications with “two individuals, who he believed, because of their online profiles, to be schoolgirls”.
The scene after McLoughlin stabbed himself outside Merseyside Police’s Kirkby station (Image: Liverpool Echo)
The court heard he first initiated contact with the profile he believed was 13-year-old “Maddie” on April 17 and quickly turned the conversation highly inappropriate. McLoughlin told the “girl” how beautiful she was, the court heard, before the conversation turned sexually explicit.
He then sent her indecent images of him performing a sex act. The ECHO has chosen to not include the nature of most of the messages McLoughlin sent.
The court heard there were also repeated discussions about meeting with “Maddie” in person. Judge Jeremy Lasker told McLoughlin: “Your assertion that you had not suggested meeting up was proved to be demonstrably false. The evidence shows that you were constantly suggesting that you should meet up.”
The court heard one message from McLoughlin asked “should we have sex if we meet up?” The offender also warned “Maddie” that if the messages were seen by her mum that he would go to prison and he had to be careful. The court heard there were “clear elements of grooming” with McLoughlin buying gifts.
He also communicated with a second account, that he believed to be “12-year-old Summer”, which, Judge Lasker said, aggravated his crimes in respect of the “Maddie” profile account. Messages to “Summer” included sexually explicit images, the court heard.
The reality was McLoughlin was communicating with TFN, who were described by the judge as “a group who identify other internet users who may have a sexual interest in underage children with the purpose of exposing them to the police”.
McLoughlin was convicted after a six-day trial of attempting to meet a girl under 16 following grooming; attempting to cause or engage a girl aged 13-15 in sexual activity and two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communications with a child. He was also convicted of possession of a bladed article in a public place, with prosecutor Callum Stevens telling the court there were “unfortunate circumstances in how this offence arose”.
A screen was put in front of the area where McLoughlin cut himself(Image: Liverpool Echo)
Suzanne Payne, defending, told the court that her client had the blade with “the intention to harm himself and not others”. She added McLoughlin saw it as “the only way out for him and his family”.
Ms Payne told the court that McLoughlin, who had no previous convictions, lost his job as a butcher at a large firm after his arrest in August 2022. She said since then he had been the primary carer for his daughter, 20, and looked after her while his wife went to work. “This has had a significant impact on her,” said Ms Payne.
She added: “While on bail he did not go out of the house, did not socialise, did not answer the door. He was reluctant to even go into the back garden because of concern for the safety of his family since his name and face was broadcast on the internet.”
The court heard police also had to put a “special device on his letterbox to stop petrol being poured through.”
Ms Payne said McLoughlin, who had two grandchildren under the age of five, was no risk to his family and “social services had never been involved in his own children’s lives”.
She said the proceedings, which had been listed for a trial on three previous occasions, “had taken a significant toll on [McLoughlin’s] mental health and the health of his family”. She added: “He has said he will never own a computer again.”
The defence barrister said McLoughlin, who appeared to the court via video link from HMP Altcourse in Fazakerley, was struggling in prison but had recently started to make use of the education and therapy on offer. He had recently got a job in the prison library but rarely left his cell because of fears for his safety, the court heard.
Sentencing, Judge Lasker told McLoughlin, who slumped in his chair and occasionally wiped his eyes during the proceedings, that he acknowledged the “regret and shame you now face”, but added because the defendant had been convicted after trial it counted for very little in terms of mitigation.
McLoughlin, who sported grey hair and wore a black top, was sentenced to four years in prison. The judge told him he would serve around 40% of the sentence before he would be released on licence.
McLoughlin was also handed an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. Supported by a number of his family in court, he thanked the judge after learning his sentence.