The dangerous man who will be spending years longer in jail after 'lenient' sentence

Robert Emmerson will be spending longer in jail

A vile pervert will spend longer in jail after his 'unduly lenient' sentence was extended.

Robert Emmerson was first arrested for exposure and stalking in 2015, and was banned from Baguley, but was not given a prison sentence when he appeared before courts.

In the years following, however, he then carried out a spate of traumatising sexual assaults on university students.

Emmerson attacked students by chasing them down, grabbing them from behind in a 'bear hug', before pinning them down to the ground and groping them. He ‘smiled’, ‘laughed’, and said ‘ooh, yeah’ as he committed his repulsive crimes. Many of the attacks happened in an underpass on the Mancunian Way to students aged between only 18 and 24, who have been left traumatised by their experiences.

The 40-year-old also exposed himself to young women and schoolgirls who had been on their way to university and school classes.

He was eventually caught and, before judges at Manchester Crown Court earlier this year, he was first sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison earlier in 2025 at Manchester Crown Court.

But today (May 1), the Court of Appeal quashed Emmerson’s first sentence and put him behind bars for longer, with judges branding his first sentence as ‘too lenient’ as he poses a serious ‘danger to the public’. The new sentence comes after an appeal from prosecutor Gemma White, and locks him away for seven years.

As Emmerson waited for the judges to arrive for his Court of Appeal hearing, he uttered ‘f*** sake’ while sitting before a camera in a room in HMP Risley.

Emmerson also exposed himself and masturbated to schoolgirls, aged as young as 13 and 16, in Wythenshawe, close to the perpetrator’s home.

First jailed for four years

In January, Emmerson was jailed for targeting the 11 women and girls in a string of offending between November 2023 and April 2024. The court heard how Emmerson had violently grabbed or pushed the women, aggressively rubbed himself on them, and touched them inappropriately over their clothes.

Despite overwhelming evidence against him following an investigation by Greater Manchester Police, Emmerson, formerly of Lancaster Court, Manchester, pleaded not guilty and forced victims to relive their trauma in a trial.

A jury subsequently found him unanimously guilty of five counts of sexual assault and seven counts of indecent exposure, including to underage girls.

Recorder Geoffrey Lowe sentenced him to four years and six months in prison. This included four years for the assaults and six months for the exposure to the schoolgirls, as well as a nine month sentence for the other exposures to be served concurrently.

He was also ordered to sign the sex offenders register for life.

But today, the sentence was quashed by the Court of Appeal for being ‘unduly lenient’ given his dark history and ‘delusional denial’ of his guilt.

The offences were said to have involved ‘significant violence’ carried out at a ‘location specifically chosen because of its suitability for that purpose’ of cornering young women and not being caught by the public, said the judges.

The judges continued that the offences spiralling from stalking and exposure to ‘dangerous’ assaults demonstrate ‘obsessive behaviour’. The judges explained this can ‘be a marker of escalating risk of sexual offences that has proved to be the case’ for Emmerson.

The judge said the sickening pervert had a ‘profound sexual occupation and the inability to express sexual thoughts in a pro-social way’.

The court heard how Emmerson remains ‘high risk of sexual harm to children, specifically female teenage children and young women aged 18-30 that were the targets’ of his crimes.