Simon Landsberg 71

Description

A "dangerous" and "obsessive" sex offender has been jailed after so-called paedophile hunters lured him into thinking he was grooming and meeting a 14-year-old girl.

Simon Landsberg, of High Street, Godstone, spoke to who he thought were three girls online and began grooming them before attempting to meet one of them at Ashburton Park, in Croydon.

The 68-year-old was confronted by the paedophile hunters on June 20 last year at the attempted rendezvous in the park, during which a court heard he had the "intent of committing sexual offences". The police were then called and he was arrested.

A video taken at the scene shows members of the public challenging Landsberg about the meeting, followed by officers leading him off in handcuffs. He first confirms his name is 'David' in reference to the name he used online before admitting to police later that he was called Simon.

He was charged with three counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child; attempting to meet a child under the age of 16; and breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO).

He had previously been convicted of facilitating the commission of a child sex offence, and was handed a three-year prison sentence in 2017. This, however, involved two real children.

A sentencing hearing at Croydon Crown Court on Thursday afternoon (February 11) heard how three people from various paedophile hunting groups posed as 14-year-old girls online.

Landsberg engaged in lengthy, predominantly sexual, conversations with these "entities", asking one of them about her body shape and telling her that he liked small breasts.

Judge Adam Hiddleston told the court: "You told her you loved her and wanted to kiss, cuddle and massage her."

He added: "You told her you had been in trouble before for falling in love with younger girls and you instructed her to delete all the communication between the two of you."

Disturbingly, Judge Hiddleston told the sentencing hearing that Landsberg had "told her that when you did [meet] you expected her to urinate in her pants".

He added: "When you turned up at the park you were confronted by members of the public who were part of a group who had communicated with you, pretending to be the victim."

The defendant engaged in similar discussions with the two other profiles, lying about his age, claiming he was 43, and discussing massaging and touching them.

All of his communications mainly focused on how the 14-year-old girls "might go about sexually stimulating themselves" before asking them to delete all of the messages.

After his arrest, police conducted a search of his person and discovered two mobile phones and a WiFi dongle. A property search uncovered a laptop, on which almost all of the conversations had been deleted.

The court heard that Landsberg is "dangerous in the way that he has conducted himself" and "has made efforts to hide his continuing sexual offending".

He committed these offences while he was on licence for his previous sexual offending and was in breach of a number of conditions of the SHPO imposed by Guildford Crown Court in 2017.

A pre-sentence report read aloud to the court said: "He exploited the apparent vulnerability of all three victims and his behaviour throughout was sexually motivated.

"He gave no thoughts as to the detrimental effects on them, and if not for his arrest, I believe his behaviour would have continued."

It added: "I would describe his behaviour as bordering on the obsessive."

Defence barrister David Stanton said Landsberg needs to seek help for his actions, as they transgress criminal law and could have affected many people, had the people he was speaking to not been decoys.

Mr Stanton said: "He very much regrets and is remorseful of his actions. He genuinely feels that what he has done is unforgivable."

Landsberg was handed a prison sentence of 44 months, with an extended licence period of 36 months. Judge Hiddleston made an order for a new SHPO, as well as the forfeiture and destruction of the items seized during police searches.