Douglas Bowyer 67

Description

A man has been jailed after storing thousands of indecent images and videos of children on 21 devices and engaging in sexual communication with children spanning almost 20 years. Forensic analysis uncovered more than 19,000 images and 628 videos.

Douglas Bowyer, 67, of Chester Way, Boston, appeared before Lincolnshire Crown Court today (Friday 9 July), where he was sentenced to eight years in prison.

This highly complex case began on 26 October 2020 after we received information from a regional unit focused on identifying, safeguarding and supporting victims of child sexual abuse.

A user with the handle ‘Boy4GirlUK1’ had engaged in sexualised conversation with someone whom they believed to be a 13-year-old female child. This user also incited the child to commit sexual acts.

During the conversation, ‘Boy4GirlUK1’ said that they were a 19-year-old male from Lincolnshire, named Dan. The profile picture on the subject’s profile was a blonde-haired young male.

The user then provided the Snapchat account of ‘danny_boi5620’.  The conversation continued on to the Snapchat platform, with the user again being sexualised in the conversation and inciting the child to masturbate.

Specialist digital research was conducted to establish the identity of the person behind the profile.

On 10 November 2020, Police arrested Douglas Bowyer, then 61, at his home in Boston.

Bowyer was previously unknown to police, but in interview he gave a full and frank admission to the offences put to him. 

He admitted regularly talking to children online ‘for some time’ through the app ‘Chat Avenue’.  He said this sometimes progressed on to Snapchat.  He admitted posing as a 19-year-old called Danny, admitting to having spoken to around 50 children, referring to himself as ‘a stereotypical dirty old man’. 

Extensive forensic digital investigation

When Bowyer was arrested in October 2020, officers seized numerous computer towers, laptops, mobile phones, hard drives and discs for forensic examination. Owing to the number of exhibits seized from the address, 49 in total, a forensic strategy had to be put in place to triage and work through the devices in stages.

This meticulous forensic work uncovered the extent of his depravity, requiring the officer in charge of the case to view and grade over a million images, 19,000 images and 628 videos of which were classified as follows:

• Category A – 2,923 images, 256 videos
• Category B – 2,326 images, 79 videos
• Category C – 12,956 images, 279 videos
• Prohibited – 798 images
• Extreme – 1 image, 14 videos

In addition to the thousands of indecent images that were identified across the numerous devices, there were also hours’ worth of recorded live chats and online conversations. From this information it became immediately apparent that Bowyer had been having sexualised conversations with a large number of female children online for years. 

In the case of two children who were aged 13 and 15 at the time that have been identified by Police, Bowyer had online ‘relationships’ for several years with them. One child had even disclosed during an online chat that they had been receiving counselling for potential clinical depression, highlighting the extent of his exploitation. He not only targeted children because of their age and vulnerability but also sought to manipulate those experiencing mental health difficulties.

Extensive enquiries were conducted to try and identify all of the children in the images; however, it appears that Bowyer has been talking to children from all over the world for a significant period of time – the earliest dating back to 2002.

Despite extensive enquiries, only three victims have been officially identified. They are all now adults.

At a plea trial hearing in April 2026, Bowyer pleaded guilty to the following offences:

• Two counts of engaging in sexual communication with a child
• Attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child
• Three counts of causing or inciting a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity – penetration
• Attempting to cause or incite a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity – penetration
• Six counts of making indecent photograph / pseudo-photograph of a child
• Possessing a prohibited image of a child
• Possessing extreme pornographic images / images portraying rape
• Possessing extreme pornographic image / images portraying an act of intercourse / oral sex with a dead / alive animal.

The officer in charge of this case, Detective Constable Nicola Paradowski of the Paedophile Online Investigation Team (POLIT), said:

This has been a hugely complex and intensive investigation. The scale of Bowyer’s offending over nearly two decades, coupled with the volume of devices seized and the number of potential victims identified, meant investigators were faced with an immense amount of material requiring forensic examination. This amounted to thousands of hours of painstaking digital research to be able to present compelling and robust evidence to the Crown Prosecution Service.

I would like to thank the victims for the courage and determination they have shown in supporting this case and helping to bring this manipulative and prolific offender to justice. Their evidence has been instrumental in exposing the full extent of his offending and securing this conviction.

As part of his sentence, Bowyer was ordered to sign the Sex Offenders’ Register for life and was issued a Sexual Harm Protection Order.