Locations
Somerfield Road, Islington, London, N4
Description
A PAEDOPHILE who was on bail after he downloaded indecent images of children went on to groom a vulnerable girl and meet her in a field.
Steven Pearson, 44, had contacted the girl on an app called Roblox and travelled from London to meet her in the Manningtree area last October.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard on Friday how the girl had gone missing from her address after saying she was going to meet her teenage boyfriend.
Callum Munday, prosecuting, said the girl’s grandfather spotted her about an hour later and saw she was being followed by Pearson.
Pearson told officers at the scene he was “just exploring the countryside and saw a girl that needed help” when he had in fact been touching her sexually.
Mr Munday said: “Officers found Pearson was on police bail for other child sex offences – he was prevented from having unsupervised contact with children under the age of 18.”
When police examined Pearson’s devices, they found he had sent messages to an account which read: “Love you princess, have you had a good day at school?”
The girl told police Pearson had contacted her on the Roblox app before the two then communicated on the messaging app Discord and arranged to meet.
The court heard Pearson had also been engaged in sexual communication with a decoy account and that he believed he was talking to a 13-year-old girl and asked her to take pictures of herself at school.
Pearson, of Somerfield Road, Islington, London, admitted two charges of engaging in sexual communication with a child, and one charge each of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, sexual assault of a girl under 13, causing a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity, and meeting a girl under 16 years of age following grooming.
Jack Coyne, mitigating, said Pearson accepted he is sexually attracted to children and that he does not enjoy having become “a pariah”.
He said: “He’s got no friends, no family – nobody who wants to speak to him.
“A large part of that is due to his offending, no doubt. He is not seeking sympathy but those are the circumstances for him.”
Sentencing Pearson, Judge Mary Loram KC said the offending was aggravated by the fact he was on bail for previous sex offences.
She said: “There can be no doubt to how vulnerable she was to people like you, who would prey on her and manipulate those vulnerabilities to their own ends.
“You travelled some distance to meet with her – your intention was to have sex with her.”
Pearson was jailed for ten years, registered as a sex offender for life, and ordered to serve a 20-year sexual harm prevention order to stop him having contact with anyone under the age of 18.