January 2012

Paedophile jailed for 12 months

David Thorneycroft (Date of birth 07.9.61 – 50ys), a security training development manager of Newcastle Avenue, Colchester was sentenced on 31 January to 12 months in prison for attempting to meet a girl under 16 years of age following grooming and possession of indecent images of children.

On 31 January David Thorneycroft (Date of birth 07.09.61, 50ys), a security training development manager of Newcastle Avenue, Colchester was sentenced at Southwark Crown Court after pleading guilty at an earlier hearing on 3 January to:

= Attempting to meet a girl under 16 years of age following grooming – sentenced to 12 months
= Possession of indecent images of children – sentenced to one month

Both sentences are to run concurrent.

He was issued with a Sexual Offences Prevention Order for five years and has been placed on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

Thorneycroft was arrested on 1 November 2011 in Buckingham Palace Road SW1 by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s Paedophile Unit as part of a pre-planned and intelligence-led operation.

Between 19 August 2011 and 1 November 2011 Thorneycroft took part in online and text exchanges with an individual he believed to be a 12-year-old girl. In those exchanges he suggested they get together and ultimately made an arrangement to meet with the ‘girl’ in Victoria on the afternoon of 1 November.

Following his arrest, officers recovered Thorneycroft’s computer which contained a number of indecent images of children.

He was subsequently charged on 2 November.