Predatory paedophile jailed for at least five and a half years
Andrew Pitcher, 56, from Leeds, tried to arrange a “fun” sex session with a father and daughter who turned out to be undercover police officers.
Pitcher, who also had a “huge” collection of child porn, sent the ‘father’ indecent images and said how much he was looking forward to their meeting.
He also started grooming the ‘14-year-old’ online, encouraging her to perform a sex act, while leaving no doubt as to what he wanted to do with her.
Pitcher travelled to a south London Tube station to meet the teen, but was greeted by officers from the Met’s Paedophile Unit instead.
Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith, at London’s Southwark Crown Court, imposed an indeterminate sentence for the public protection on Pitcher, with a minimum term of five and a half years.
He was also given concurrent jail sentences of up to two and a half years for 22 other counts including ten charges of making child porn, ten of distributing child porn and two possession counts.
In sentencing, the judge said Pitcher had derived a “sense of pleasure” from his activities which had given him a way to “live out his fantasies”.
He added: “I am of the view that you are a dangerous and predatory sex offender.
“I have considered the images that you kept so voraciously and I have read the chat log.
“In my opinion there’s a serious risk to young girls of your causing personal trauma or psychological harm.”
The court heard that following his arrest his home was searched and a number of computers were seized, one of which contained a “huge” number of indecent images of children.
Of the 76,000 images recovered more than 10,000 were analysed and revealed his “voracious enthusiasm for child pornography”.
They featured the “sexual abuse of very young children through to girls in their very early teens” and ranged from naked posing to the most serious “level five” category which includes sadism, bondage and bestiality.
Police also discovered he had used various internet identities to communicate with 900 other people, 200 of whom were sent child porn.
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