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A mum who had a baby by her partner’s schoolboy cousin has escaped trial – because prosecutors ruled a court case was not in the public interest.

Police arrested Amber Hales for sexual activity with a child after her alleged victim Joshua Jeffrey complained to them last year.

He told officers she groomed him for sex behind her boyfriend Andrew Jeffrey’s back after he moved in with them aged 13 seven years ago.

Joshua claims Hales took him into her bed after forcing his unsuspecting older cousin out of the house – but 18 months later she showed Joshua the door too when she found she was expecting his child.

In an astonishing twist, Hales, now 29, then successfully begged Andrew – the father of her two young

daughters – to take her back.

He claims she told him her ­pregnancy was the result of a one-night stand with a stranger and he accepted it.

For years Joshua – who had no idea he was the dad of her third daughter – kept what happened with Hales to himself.

Then he heard she and Andrew had split again after having a fourth baby girl – and feared Hales would be alone with the children.

Joshua, now 21, says: “I heard Amber was trying to get the kids to live with her and something just clicked

inside me.

“At that point I had to speak out. I had kept it bottled up for a long time but I had to do it. I felt disgusted about the fact I let her do that to me.

“But I am grown up now and I owed it to those kids to let someone know what she did to me.”

But Joshua’s biggest shock came after plucking up the courage to tell the police.

He says: “I didn’t even know I was a dad until they did a DNA test on the baby Amber was pregnant with when we split.

“It’s a nightmare unfolding for me, Andrew and the whole family.

“I went off the rails after the abuse and have been in trouble for petty crime. So going to police and telling them what happened to me was the hardest thing.

"But I felt certain they would take me seriously. She had my baby when I was still a child.”

Joshua also told his secret to stunned security worker Andrew, 32, who then went to police to back his cousin.

Hales was arrested, but the final bombshell came after officers handed the case file, including the DNA evidence, to the Crown Prosecution Service in February.

Joshua says: “We’ve now been told by police that somehow the CPS have decided it wasn’t something they wanted to pursue. I can’t believe it.

“I’m angry and scared to live in a world where someone can get away with that. I want her locked up. I want her to rot in jail where she can never go near a child again.”

When the Sunday Mirror contacted CPS North West last week to question the ruling, a spokesman admitted their decision.

But he added that the case including all the evidence given to police was now under review. Today Joshua and Andrew are telling us their stories in the hope of finally getting the case to court.

Josh told Greater Manchester Police last August how he moved in with Hales and his cousin after problems with his parents.

He had known her since he was seven when she started dating Andrew and she was accepted into the Jeffreys’ close-knit family.

Andrew also recalls: “I told Amber about Josh’s troubles with my auntie and uncle one night and she jumped at the chance to have him come and stay with us.

"She knew how close we were so I thought she was doing it for me. I thought it was lovely and she treated him just like our own kids.”

Josh adds: “At first I thought it was just normal that she paid me lots of attention. I loved it because I felt wanted. I had a little crush on her when I first met her so I liked being around her all the time.”

But while the mum-of-two enjoyed the 13-year-old’s company, partner Andrew claims she started steadily neglecting the rest of her family.

“Around that time she changed from being really maternal and ­attentive to detached and

uninterested,” says Andrew.

Then, six months into Joshua’s stay, Andrew went to visit his mum with the girls for a Christmas break. But, unusually, Amber insisted on staying home with Josh.

(Image: Matt Sprake)

Her next move was to tear the family apart.

Andrew says: “She called me while we were away and told me she wanted the girls back but not me. She said she needed space. I was gutted – we’d been together eight years.”

But Joshua claims Hales gave him a very different version of the break-up.

He says: “I’d already had one dad walk out on me and she knew how much that had affected me. So she told me Andrew – who I loved and trusted - was the one to walk out and he wasn’t coming back.

“She turned me against him and then made me feel like she was the only one who cared. She made out like he’d let us both down.”

Joshua claims it was the beginning of 18 months of grooming. “She showered me with gifts, like £90 jeans and Nike Air trainers and treated me like an adult,” he says. “

It made me feel grown up and important. And when she moved me out of the kids’ room to stay in her bed with her, I was confused. My childhood crush was coming back.

“It was so childish but one night I typed into my phone ‘what would you do if I kissed you?’ and showed it to her. She said ‘try it and see’.”

Joshua says it was the start of their sexual relationship and he claims she even bedded him when her two children were in the house.

He recalls: “I remember one time she kept me off school to spend the day in bed with her but the girls were there. They came into the bedroom while we were having sex.

"I wanted to stop but she said we were just wrestling and told them to go away and then carried on. At the time she made me feel like it was normal, like I was the big man.

“She made me feel like she was all I had in the world and she manipulated me to do what she wanted.”

(Image: Lennox Herald)

Then she fell pregnant. Joshua says he was never aware of it and that she told him he would have to move out because she was being evicted from her rented house.

He went to live with friends and she moved into Andrew’s new home after he agreed to take her back.

Andrew says he told police he knew that Hales had cheated during their relationship but had been unaware that the baby she was carrying was Joshua’s.

He said he took Hales back believing her story about the pregnancy. He told police he raised the child, now six, as his own daughter and a fourth child had followed.

But the pressure of Amber’s infidelity became too much and the relationship crumbled again last year.

Then came a call from Joshua.

Andrew says: “I hadn’t seen or heard from him for ages so I knew something was wrong. He told me everything and let me know he was going to tell the police.

“I remember his voice shaking and he just said, ‘You can’t let her have the kids. You can’t.’ I knew then she had done something terrible. I felt sick.”

Worse was to come as DNA tests during the police investigation revealed that Hales’ third child was in fact his second cousin.

“I remember seeing him for the first time after I found out he was Amber’s child’s dad,” says Andrew.

“I was so nervous. I’m not proud of it but I didn’t know if I was going to scream or cry or punch him or what. But I know she is the one in the wrong. He was a little kid.

"I wish I had seen what was going on and done something about it.”

Speaking at Andrew’s home in Peterborough the pair say they want justice. Joshua says: “She manipulated me and ruined my childhood”

Andrew adds: “She has destroyed this family and is walking free.”

When we contacted Amber Hales she said there was more to the story but beyond that she declined to comment.

A CPS spokesman confirmed: “It has been decided by CPS North West that the decision in this case should be reviewed.

"This process is now under way and we will inform those involved of the outcome as soon as we can.”