A predator posed as a figure of authority to sexually assault children in London parks, a court heard.
A predator posed as a figure of authority to sexually assault children in London parks, a court heard.
David Pearce, 70, of March in Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Wednesday to seven sex offences, including six counts of indecent assault and one count of indecency with a child.
Prosecutors say that on April 23, 1990, at Barking park lido – while masquerading as a police officer or a caretaker, Pearce told four children, two boys and two girls, aged between eight and 11, that keys were missing before assaulting them.
At a recreational ground in July 1996, he indecently assaulted two 13-year-old girls, prosecutors say.
The court heard that police were able to match semen found on a bench after the 1990 incident to Pearce after he was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of voyeurism, for which he was cautioned.
Pearce had denied a further four counts of indecent assault, six counts of attempting an act of indecency with a child and two counts of indecency with a child relating to 12 other children also in the 1990s.
But prosecutors chose to leave the charges on file after his guilty pleas were entered.
Pearce was granted conditional bail, but was warned that he faces jail time when he is sentenced for the seven offences on May 29.
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