October 2010

Man got teenager to send him indecent images of herself

A COLWICK man persuaded an Australian schoolgirl to send him pictures of herself naked, a court heard.

She believed he was a model in his early 20s and started to view him as her boyfriend after he sent her a card and gift for her 14th birthday.

But the man chatting to her online was 45-year-old David Dowling.

His actions were discovered when her family computer broke down and the indecent images were found.

Dowling had asked her to send pictures of herself online, including ones of her performing a sexual act, Nottingham Crown Court heard.

The images fell into the category of level one, the lowest in seriousness of child porn.

She had taken the photographs herself in her bedroom and sent them by MSN messaging and e-mail.

She thought Dowling was 20 or 21, the court was told.

He “met” her in TeenSpot, a teenage chat room, giving his date of birth as 1986 and his address. He rang her regularly, asking her for phone sex on one occasion, which she refused.

Between April 5, 2006, and November 14, 2006, they swapped 147 e-mails.

Dowling was cautioned in October 2006 by police for an offence of causing or inciting a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity in the Derby area.

Examination of his computer equipment found 45 indecent images, including some of the 14-year-old, all at level one.

Of the others, there were 37 at level one, four at level three and four at level four.

Judge Michael Pert, QC, gave Dowling, of Balmoral Grove, a community order for three years and told him to attend a sex offenders’ group work programme.

He was disqualified from working with children and was told to sign the sex offenders’ register.

At an earlier hearing, Dowling admitted causing or inciting child porn on two occasions, 14 charges of making indecent photos of a child and two charges of possessing them.

Simon Eckersley, in mitigation, said his client’s marriage had broken up and he temporarily lost his employment.

He said Dowling was addicted to adult porn and chat rooms and this developed into an interest in teenage chat rooms.