Reuben Poll 31

Description

A teaching assistant has been jailed for two years and four months after admitting a string of sex offences against children.

The youth worker, originally from Jewson Road, Norwich, was jailed for grooming a boy over the internet, child abduction and sexual assault.

The offences involved four boys in Swaffham and Norwich.

Following the case, Norfolk police urged parents to become more aware of the 'dangers of the online world' and to not be afraid to check their children's social network use.

Reuben Poll used the alias Jordan Green on social network site Facebook to chat to one 11-year-old.

The court heard how he groomed the boy by making sexual comments in private messages.

He encouraged the child to send explicit photos of himself and sent the child pornographic images.

Reuben, who volunteered at a youth club in Swaffham and worked as a teaching assistant at primary schools around Norfolk, then met up with the boy at a park in January this year.

But he was caught after the child's mother became suspicious.

William Carter, prosecuting, told Norwich Crown Court that the 11-year-old's mother noticed a change in his behaviour and discovered the messages from 'Jordan Green' when she checked her child's Facebook account dating back to early December 2012.

She took the laptop to police and Poll was arrested on January 12.

Her son told officers how Poll had 'drawn me in' through the messages in which he claimed he was 16 years old rather than 20.

He told the child: 'I want to be like your big bro and look after you.'

When Poll was arrested by police two boys, aged 12 and 15, were in his white Renault Clio without their parents' consent.

They said they were going to Poll's flat to do some decorating, but the children's parents said they were 'horrified' when told by officers, and Poll admitted two counts of abduction.

He also admitted sexual assault by touching a child at a Swaffham youth club where he volunteered. The case was dismissed by the club when reported by the boy last year as they believed Poll's denial.

Poll will now be placed on the Sex Offenders' Register for 10 years.

Andrew Shaw, mitigating, said Poll had a very troubled upbringing and was 'damaged' and 'confused'.

He is the son of a woman described in court as 'probably Norwich's most notorious prostitute' Carmen Dye. He was taken into foster care aged eight and grew up in Dereham.

But Mr Shaw said that his attempts to get his life on track by becoming a teaching assistant were scuppered when his sister Natasha Dye died from a drugs overdose supplied to her by her mother's partner. He fell into depression and lost his primary school job.