A gay couple who preyed on a schoolboy in a two-month period have been jailed after camping out in the woods to avoid the nationwide manhunt for them.
A court heard Adam Hastings and Reece Upton plied the young boy with cash, vapes and energy drinks while using him for sex.
The men, who worked together at a shop, went on the run after one of them was initially arrested by police who were told about the 15-year-old boy’s ordeal after being groomed.
A judge heard that Hastings, 28, and Upton, 29, were in a relationship and lived together on a houseboat on the Kennet and Avon Canal.
They targeted the schoolboy and decided to groom him for sexual activity, a sentencing hearing at Reading Crown Court was told.
The court heard that Thames Valley Police launched a nationwide appeal to find the pair after they went ‘off grid’.
Following an intelligence-led search involving dog and drone units and the help of the public, the pair were eventually arrested in Devizes, Wiltshire, on June 24 last…
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