David Johnson was spotted by a passenger watching sex abuse videos on a train to London
A sick Wandsworth man watched videos of child sex abuse around other passengers on an intercity train. David Johnson, 35, was caught viewing the vile material on a midday Stafford to Euston service on September 23 last year.
A member of the public saw the paedophile exchanging messages with someone before opening a video of a young child being abused. He then switched to another chat where a person asked him ‘What kinds of videos do you like? I have all kinds’, to which Johnson replied, ‘Just kids videos’
The shaken onlooker moved to another part of the carriage and reported the behaviour to the British Transport Police (BTP) via text. Officers arrested Johnson upon his arrival at the London station.
His mobile phone – containing a screen wallpaper of an indecent image of a child – was seized and searched. In custody, Johnson asked to have it back as he “needed to delete some stuff”.
Police later found nearly 200 indecent images of children, including 105 in category A – the most severe. They also recovered two chat transcripts, one of which showed he had been speaking to a girl he believed was 13 years old and had arranged to meet her for sex.
The other chat transcript was with an older woman and appeared to reference the same 13-year-old girl, but the woman had told Johnson that he could not see her as she was unwell. Enquiries established the teenager did not exist.
Johnson, of Francis Chichester Way, in Battersea, pleaded guilty to six counts of Making Indecent Images of Children, two counts of Attempting to Engage in Sexual Communication with a Child and Arranging or Facilitating the Commission of a Child Sex Offence. He was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment at Inner London Crown Court on April 1.
The judge also handed him a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order and requirement to sign the sex offender register for 10 years.
BTP Detective Constable Victoria Lowth said: “The quick thinking and courage of the man who saw Johnson’s phone meant that we were able to quickly arrest him and uncover the scale of his offending. I’d like to offer our sincerest thanks to that man, whose actions have directly led to Johnson’s imprisonment.
“Behind every image and video Johnson owned is a vulnerable child that has been exploited and abused. He is clearly a danger to children and has rightly been handed substantial jail sentence, and stringent conditions have been put in place to prevent him from offending further.
“We will always do everything we can to make the railway a hostile place for criminals, and especially those whose offending targets children.”
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