A man has been jailed for trying to abduct a three-year-old boy from an Aldi supermarket.
Sergejus Paskevicius, 61, snatched the child as his mother was paying for shopping at a store in Rochdale in Greater Manchester, on 23 July last year.
She took her younger son, aged three, and his older brother, believed to be seven, to the shop’s front window and asked them to wait there, turning every few seconds to check on them.
Paskevicius, who was in front of the mother in the till queue, stood at a large shelf by the window after paying to pack his bag.
Then in what police have described as “every parent’s worst nightmare”, he started talking to the boys before putting his bag on his shoulder, grabbing the youngest and holding him up to his chest.
The older sibling bravely managed to pull his younger brother free before carrying him back to their mother during the “terrifying ordeal”.
Paskevicius walked out of the store “pretending to act like nothing had happened”, Greater Manchester Police said.
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He was identified following an appeal on social media and later arrested and charged after CCTV showed the incident in full.
A search of his home in Orchard Street, Heywood, found clothing matching his attire at the time of the attempted abduction.
Paskevicius was jailed for three years and two months at Manchester’s Minshull Street Crown Court on Friday for the offence of taking a child, removing them from a person of lawful control.
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Detective Sergeant Andrew Whitehall, of Greater Manchester Police’s Rochdale district, said: “Paskevicius was a danger to society for his shocking actions but thankfully his intentions didn’t result in anything more serious than a sinister move to abduct a child from their parent.
“It is arguably every parent’s worst nightmare and thanks to the quick actions of everyone involved, including the local public, we were able to arrest the person responsible.
“He will spend further time behind bars now to reflect on his actions and as officers we will always treat this type of incident with the attention and seriousness it deserves.”
