September 2009

Predatory child abuser jailed for attacks on girls

A dangerous paedophile who raped a young child and asked his ex-girlfriend if he could abuse her nine-year-old daughter has been jailed for nearly six years. 

Patrick Cook, 49, of The Mound, Mottingham, appeared at Woolwich Crown Court last Thursday where he was sentenced to five years and 10 months.

He pleaded guilty to four offences which included raping a child aged under-13, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child and sexual assault of a child under-13.

He has also been placed on the sex offenders’ register for life, is banned from working with children and is subject to a sexual offences prevention order.

Sentencing, Judge Shorrock described Cook as a “predatory paedophile”.

The investigation was sparked by Cook’s ex-girlfriend who told police he had asked if he could sexually abuse her nine-year-old daughter in July last year.

Officers arrested him and took away his computer and telephones and found how he had used internet chat rooms to obtain victims.

In one case he had been trying to meet a 13-year-old girl from Hackney in order to have sex with her. Officers traced the teenager, who gave a detailed statement.

Further enquiries revealed that Cook met a single mother from East Sussex on an internet dating site and offered her money in exchange for sexual activity with her nine-year-old daughter.

In a separate incident, Cambridgeshire police arrested Cook after he sexually assaulted a nine-year-old girl in Cambridge in December 2008, again after meeting the girl’s mother on an internet dating site.

Cook appeared at Cambridge Magistrates’ Court in January this year where he was remanded in custody.

Further investigation found that Cook had also sexually assaulted an 11-year-old girl in Hastings in April 2008. He was charged with this offence the day before his trial was due to start in July 2009.

Police said the “overwhelming weight of evidence” led Cook to change his plea to guilty for the previous offences and the trial did not need to go ahead.