The Manchester Evening News has finally confirmed that self-proclaimed citizen journalist Curtis Arnold (otherwise known as Daniel J. Edwards and DJE Media) is a convicted sex offender.
The MEN's front page from today, 17th December 2025, is shown above. You can read the full text from an archived copy here.
Arnold, you might remember, is the social media fiend who filmed the lifeless body of missing woman Nicola Bulley being recovered from the River Wyre on 19th February 2023. I have previously written about his antics here and here. In short, he is a habitual liar with many previous convictions for offences of dishonesty.
He obtained his macabre footage by lying his way past police officers with his camera. He uploaded the footage to YouTube for notoriety and clicks, later boasting that he'd made around £900 from it.
In a documentary about Nicola's disappearance her partner, Paul Ansell, recounted how Arnold had turned up at their childrens' school in the hope of getting some shots of him during the school run.
The sex offender label arises from offences Arnold was convicted of at the start of 2019, when he was 30-years-old:
- 12 counts of fraud by false representation;
- 1 count of voyeurism;
- 1 count of causing a person to engage in sexual activity without consent;
- 1 count of making indecent images of a child.
He was sentenced for these offences by HHJ Rosa Dean at Harrow Crown Court on 8th February 2019 (see transcript). The sentence was subsequently varied on 4th March 2019 (see transcript). The transcripts were obtained by YouTuber Street Video Reviewer. Full credit to him for doing the leg work on this. Prior to publishing its piece, the Manchester Evening News has verified the details in the transcripts - not that there was ever any doubt in my mind (despite liar Arnold's repeated denials).
Briefly, Arnold duped more than a dozen young women into modelling gymwear. He provided them with rather skimpy leggings, some of which had been modified to reveal their pubic regions, and promised them money and fame in return for sexualised poses.
Of course the money and fame never came, with Arnold instead using the images for his own sordid little purposes. One of the girls was only 17-years-old at the time, which accounts for the indecent images conviction.
HHJ Dean, sentencing, said: "SE, as you well knew, was underage. You well knew because you had been part of her induction to the gym. She was 17-years-old when you took photographs of her.
"She described being led to a private training area at the back of the gym, asked to try on different pairs of leggings, asked to walk on a treadmill so that photographs could be taken from behind. Asked to do squats and a downward dog pose with her bottom in the air. Asked to straddle a chair, and at one point asked to change into a pair of leggings where the front was so low that it would show her underwear. So a very unfortunately and unsavoury incident."
It is also to be noted that Arnold, as a known wrong 'un, was already banned from some of the gyms where he perpetrated the frauds.
Arnold was sentenced to 34 months' imprisonment and made subject to a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO). That order, which he has vehemently denied having, remains in force until 2029.
I'm sure this will get further traction in the national media in the coming days, so stay tuned.
I should also add that the only reason I am writing about this now is because of Arnold's bare-faced lies about this matter being totally obliterated by the Manchester Evening News.
If you look at the mock-up newspaper front page in this earlier article you'll find a special Easter Egg relating to Arnold. Well done to the two people who told me they'd found it!
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