'I jumped on his head myself!': Pregnant woman is jailed for organising gang beating of innocent man who was wrongly named as a paedophile on vigilante website

Rachel Ashworth, 28, led the vicious attack on vulnerable epileptic victim

Antonio Cressoti, 39, was punched, kicked and beaten in his own home

He had been falsely branded a paedophile on website 'Predator Watch'



Fraudulent website put details on and demanded money to remove them



Ashworth, of Colne, Lancashire, bragged about the assault on Facebook

Pregnant Ashworth admitted assault and was jailed for 16 months



Jailed: Mother-to-be Rachel Ashworth, 28, pictured, was sentenced to 16 months in prison

A mother-to-be led a savage assault on a man wrongly identified as a paedophile.

Rachel Ashworth and two accomplices burst into the home of Antonio Cressoti and beat him so badly he was left unconscious.

They kicked and punched him to the floor before smashing an ornament over his head.

Ashworth, 28, later boasted of the attack on Facebook, saying: ‘I even jumped on his head myself. Any paedophile deserves hanging.’

But Mr Cressoti, 39, had never committed a sex offence, Burnley Crown Court heard yesterday.

Ashworth, who is studying beauty therapy, had seen his name on Predators Watch, a Facebook site identifying suspected paedophiles.



She recruited two other people and went to Mr Cressoti’s home early on the morning of Sunday, June 16, and started banging on the door.

When Mr Cressoti opened it Ashworth, who he had known for around a month, shouted: ‘You are a paedophile b*****d’ before the assault began.

Kimberley Obrusik, prosecuting, told the court: ‘The victim must have become unconscious as the next thing he was aware of was hearing a car speeding away. He called the police and ambulance and was kept in hospital for 24 hours.’

Mr Cressoti suffered a broken rib and severe cuts and bruising. ‘The complainant has no antecedents for any sexual offences in any way,’ Miss Obrusik added.

‘He suffers from epilepsy and was vulnerable. Since the assault, there have been significant complications.’

After her arrest, Ashworth, from Colne in Lancashire, told detectives that Mr Cressoti was a paedophile and it was ‘all over the internet’.

On Facebook she had also written that she had ‘defo found the right one’ and bragged that her victim’s face would be a mess.



The court heard that Predators Watch had identified innocent people and then demanded money for these names to be removed. The site has since been closed down.

Ashworth, a first time offender who is 15 weeks pregnant with her first child, admitted causing actual bodily harm but refused to name her two accomplices.

Kristian Cavanagh, defending, said the defendant knew it was a serious offence. ‘She recognises it was a stupid thing to do, including the entry on Facebook,’ she added. ‘She took it off within an hour and has since left Facebook.’

Sentencing Ashworth to 16 months in prison, Judge Beverley Lunt said: ‘This was vigilantism, wrongly.

Sentencing at Burnley Crown Court, pictured, Judge Beverley Lunt told Ashworth: 'You identified this entirely innocent man and he's now seeking help with mental issues, suffers panic attacks'

'You identified this entirely innocent man and he’s now seeking help with mental issues, suffers panic attacks, his epilepsy has been made worse and he’s moved out of the area because he was afraid to stay where he was.’ He said the Facebook entries were ‘disgraceful’.

‘You are 15 weeks pregnant, but that cannot be used as a shield to stop an appropriate sentence being imposed.’

In May, Gary Cleary hanged himself in Leicestershire after he was confronted by members of the now defunct vigilante group Letzgohunting.

The group claimed to have posed as a 14-year-old girl in an online chatroom to make contact with the 29-year-old engineer, who had a girlfriend.

He was found dead in his garage four days later.