News
Former Manchester personal trainer jailed after sexually assaulting teenage girl
He offered to train and help her with her diet and nutrition.
Emily Sergeant -
29th January 2025 
A former personal trainer from Manchester has been jailed after grooming and sexually assaulting a teenage client.
Greater Manchester Police (GMP) first received information that Matthew Lawrence was having a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old child while he was a personal trainer in a gym at the time, and had befriended her by offering to train and help her with her diet and nutrition.
At first, the manager of the gym was said to be “concerned” that the victim was not over the age of 16, as per the gym’s membership requirements, and approached Lawrence advising him to terminate her membership.
Lawrence, however, replied stating: “Don’t ban her, in case she goes to the police.”
In past conversations, Lawrence had said he preferred dating younger girls as he liked their “innocence”, and had also bragged to another member of the gym that he had been exchanging indecent images with the victim, which, of course, led staff at the gym to become concerned by his behaviour and were become fearful that he had groomed her.
Thankfully, they reported the matter to the police, and Lawrence was subsequently circulated as wanted.
After detectives managed to track down several witnesses who stated that they were in the presence of Lawrence when he learned the victim was just 15-years-old, as well as gathering further evidence from his mobile phone, the victim bravely confided in her mother in August 2023, and told her that Lawrence had tried to kiss her, and physically forced her to commit sexual acts on him.
When interviewed by specially-trained officers, the victim disclosed that Lawrence had taken her to the cinema as a reward for training so hard in the gym, before sexually assaulting her in his locked car.
Phone analysis conducted also showed that there were over 3,000 calls and texts between Lawrence and the victim in the space of just a month, many of a sexually explicit nature.
He was arrested by GMP officers at London Airport on the 1 September 2023, which prevented him from starting a new job as a personal trainer on a cruise ship.
Read more:
- Seven men arrested in Greater Manchester as part of investigation into child sexual exploitation in early 2000s
- ‘Extremely dangerous’ man jailed for 35 years for murder, rape, and sexual assault
- The best and most popular gyms in Manchester, ranked by price
After Lawrence pleaded guilty to sexual communication with a child, and two counts of sexual activity with a child at Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court yesterday (Tuesday 28 January), he was eventually sentenced to three years and nine months in jail.
He is also subject to an indefinite restraining order and sexual notification order, and a 10 year sexual harm prevention order.
Featured Image – GMP
