He impersonated a caretaker and approached a group of four children at a lido
A man who posed as a caretaker and abused four children in the 1990s has been jailed after officers matched his DNA from a crime he committed in 2019.
David Pearce, now aged 70, pleaded guilty to seven sex offences following the prosecution’s opening statement at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Wednesday, May 6.
In 1990, Pearce impersonated a caretaker and approached a group of four children at a lido in Barking, east London, pretending to search for lost keys. He lured them into a changing area before forcing them to strip off and inappropriately touching them under the false pretence of finding the keys.
The youngest was just 8 years old. Officers gathered statements from the children and cordoned off the scene where they found semen on a bench. They weren’t able to match the DNA to any DNA in the police database.
In 2019, Pearce was arrested for a separate offence of voyeurism. The DNA he provided was a ‘one-in-a-billion’ match to the suspect at the Lido.
Detectives then reviewed similar reports and found victim statements from a 1996 incident which followed an alarmingly identical pattern. In this case, a 13-year-old victim said a man had forced her into shrubbery in a Barking park and assaulted her as he claimed to search for a pair of lost keys.
Forensic Scientist Bridget March, who was responsible for the DNA match in 2019, concluded: “Forensics play a key role in investigations, with our team of professionals meticulously examining items to locate and present evidence, backed by science. The advances in science and discovery of the match to Pearce’s DNA profile ultimately paved the way to secure admissible evidence.”
Not long after Pearce’s initial arrest in 2019, he was questioned in relation to the 1996 incident. The victim-survivor attended an identification parade, where she confirmed Pearce as the man who had assaulted her.
Detective Constable Tony Anionwu from the Met’s Specialist Crime Unit said: “Pearce was a predator who disguised himself as someone in a position of trust to exploit and assault young children. His actions had a lasting impact, and I would like to thank the victim-survivors for their unwavering resilience and profound patience while we strived for justice.
“Our dedicated team of officers have handled this case with sensitivity. As a force, we remain committed to securing justice for anyone who has experienced a sexual assault, no matter when they occurred, and over the past five years, we have more than tripled arrests and charges for this crime.”
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