It is a case that has left its mark on the most hardened of cops. The more detectives delved into the goings on at a seemingly normal house in Heaton Chapel, the true horrors committed by their suspect became clear.
Nicholas Moxham was seen going into the Briarfield Road property with a string of women. Many, it would later be revealed, were vulnerable. Concerns were raised by neighbours, and when disturbing accounts of a man called ‘Nick’ in Manchester’s ‘red light’ district emerged, the link was made.
When police busted his door down, they found a ‘pale and malnourished’ woman under a duvet on his living room floor. It would be the beginning of a disturbing investigation into a depraved predator’s life and crimes.
Here, the Manchester Evening News looks back at the case and the full extent of the horrific offences committed by Nicholas Moxham. The 52-year-old was jailed for life on Friday.
READ MORE: Everything the judge told vile ‘narcissistic’ sex predator Nicholas Moxham as he jailed him for life
From a young age, Moxham had shown ‘antipathy’ towards women. In 1992, he was convicted of a serious attack on a woman – who he didn’t know – as she walked past him in the street. He was jailed for four years.
The then 21-year-old told a probation worker he had ‘anger issues’, with women bearing the brunt of his ire. He couldn’t stand the fact many women weren’t interested in him romantically.
In 1997, Moxham received a caution for indecent exposure. He went on to study at university, eventually opening up his own children’s entertainment business. Parents had no idea about his sordid urges.
Only years later would it be revealed Moxham used the business as a mean to abuse children. Police recovered evidence of him committing unthinkable crimes against youngsters, luring some into the woods behind a school with a camera hidden among the leaves as he inappropriately touched himself.
None of the children have been identified. It is not clear whether they were aware of what had happened to them, Manchester Crown Court heard. A couple of years later, Moxham put a spy camera in the toilets of an outbuilding at the school.
His business had been enlisted to provide changing facilities and refreshments for kids. Moxham would later tell the police he concealed the device in a fake air freshener.
The motion-activated camera recorded children using the toilet. Police were unable to access all the images, so the exact number of victims is not known.
Moxham’s desires were becoming increasingly sordid. Fast forward to March 2020 and the country was plunged into lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Moxham had been using the services of sex workers from the age of 17 as a ‘soothing mechanism’ for loneliness. As the nation stayed indoors, he was out on the streets, lurking in dark corners, waiting for a victim.
He was a familiar face to the women who plied their trade after dark. The knew his car. Moxham, struggling to make cash in lockdown, looked for other ways to make ends meet.
Realising sex workers would not be able to operate as usual, he invited them to work from his home, establishing the property as a brothel.
Using websites that advertised the services of sex workers, he created accounts for women he lured back to his house. He exploited them, giving them more appointments than they agreed to, and setting services they didn’t want to provide.
Moxham would pose as women online, talking to potential clients and enticing them to make appointments. He also flogged vile images and videos online. Realising it was another way of making money, he encouraged women to film sexually explicit videos indoors, before uploading them.
The material fuelled his sick fantasies. Moxham set up a spy camera – disguised as a pen – in his bedroom, recording women without their consent. One woman, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was homeless when she was offered work at Moxham’s home.
She agreed, left her temporary accommodation and began living with him. Moxham exploited her drug addiction, giving her cash and taking her to her dealer.
In return, she took more bookings with clients than she wanted and carried out acts she earlier said she didn’t want to. In return for money for drugs, she would accept more bookings with clients than she wanted to, and would engage in acts she had indicated she was not willing to provide.
Moxham would take her to outdoor ‘sex sessions’ with numerous men, each of whom paid to have sex with her. “At least once she was restrained in a car to allow this to take place,” Judge John Potter said. “You received money from the men for this.”
Moxham made multiple films of the woman. He raped her on a number of separate occasions, sometimes while she was asleep, filming some of the activity on his mobile phone.
The woman later decided to stop living with Moxham after she discovered some of the footage he had taken. A second woman was exploited in the same way. She had not undertaken sex work before being offered a place to stay at Moxham’s home.
He made several bookings with clients and would take the money she received. He would film her covertly while she engaged in sexual activity with others. Around the same time, he was exploiting another woman who had agreed to work from his house.
Moxham put a profile up for her up a sex work website and advertised her services without the use of a condom. He made numerous bookings for her whether she agreed or not.
He filmed her while she was naked outdoors, directing her to carry out acts described by the judge as ‘degrading and humiliating’. “In one film you are seen to remove your trousers and have sexual activity with her as she is lying in a gutter at night at the side of the road,” he said.
In 2020, Moxham found two more women to exploit, filming them as they engaged in sexual acts with clients. He arranged bookings for them and gave them drugs. His abuse of one woman came to an end when police first raided his home in July, 2020 following complaints from neighbours.
“She saw clients that you had booked at her home and yours,” Judge Potter told Moxham. “If she saw them at your house you would insist upon having sexual intercourse with her soon after the client had left.”
The woman refused to work for him as his demands became too much. Following Moxham’s arrest, he was interviewed and released pending further investigation – and ordered ‘not to contact or employ the services of any sex worker’.
He immediately breached those condition and was arrested. He used a sex worker as it was near his birthday and he was ‘feeling lonely at the time’, he told the court. Moxham again encouraged a woman to work from his home as a sex worker, advertising her services online and taking the money she earned.
She was taken to outdoor sex sessions with numerous men. On one occasion, she was tied to a pole in the ground. Moxham filmed her without her consent, using covert cameras in his bedroom, selling the videos and keeping them for himself.
Judge Potter told Moxham: “You told her that she had become so indebted to you for money she owed you from loans to buy drugs and for the use of your house, that she had to pay you over £1,000 a month. Financial evidence showed this was how much she then paid to you.”
He went on to rape her as she slept and filmed the vile acts. The judge described the ‘campaign of rape’ as ‘highly exploitative, controlling and grotesque’. The woman was found pale and malnourished in his living room.
She was spoken to by the police and was eventually able to say what had happened to her. As cops searched his house, Moxham tried to throw hard drives out of a window.
Devices including spy hole cameras and USB drives were recovered and analysed. They revealed a disturbing number of images of children as well as extreme pornographic images, including depictions of bestiality.
Moxham was charged. He initially denied all the offences. He later admitted some of his crimes. Moxham was convicted of 32 offences – six counts of rape; one count of attempted rape; three counts of assault by penetration; three counts of sexual activity with a child; three counts of requiring compulsory labour; 16 counts of voyeurism; six counts of controlling prostitution for gain; four counts of making or possessing indecent images of children; one count of possessing extreme pornography; and one count of keeping a brothel.
Describing him as a ‘determined and predatory sexual offender’, Judge Potter sent him down for life. He will now serve 22 years before he will be considered for release by the Parole Board.
This article was originally published by Manchester EveningNews as Behind the door of the seemingly normal home, a monster’s grotesque crimes were uncovered.
