The former school cleaner was snared by a police decoy
An online pervert who thought that he was chatting to a 13-year-old girl – when really it was an undercover police officer – has been branded a “fairly pathetic fantasist”. David Glover thought that it was “well cool” to talk sexually to teenage girls and he was later found with a “vile” collection of images of girls as young as four, Hull Crown Court heard.
Glover, 65, of Preston Road, east Hull, but recently in custody on remand, admitted attempting to communicate sexually with a child under 16, making indecent images of children, possessing extreme pornographic images and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
Abigail Rowley, prosecuting, said that undercover police set up an online profile of a decoy 13-year-old girl and Glover began chats with her on September 10 last year. He told her that it was “well cool” to chat with girls of her age and he asked her if she liked people “talking sexy”.
His details led to him being traced and he was arrested on December 5 last year. Police found that he had two mobile phones that should have been registered under the terms of the five-year sexual harm prevention order, imposed in 2022, but they were not.
“One of the phones was hidden beneath a carpet near a computer desk,” said Miss Rowley. “He denied having any devices that were not registered.”
His phones were analysed and there were 18 images and 20 videos of children in the most serious Category A, 21 images and seven videos in Category B and 87 images and one video in Category C. The girls abused were as young as four. There was also one image and three videos of bestiality. He had convictions for seven previous offences.
Stephen Robinson, mitigating, said that Glover did not comply with the original sexual harm prevention order. “It’s clear that this defendant has a problem,” said Mr Robinson. “There is some minimisation. This defendant was isolated and lived on his own with limited contact with others. He lived in a fantasy world. It’s clear that he wants and seeks help.
“He would not have taken this further than attempted sexual communication with a child. He questioned the real age of the child and stopped all further contact.
“He is a fairly pathetic fantasist who would not have taken this into the real world. There is no real child who was harmed by sexual communication, although real children would have been harmed by the taking of the images that he had.
“There is the beginning of a realisation of the effect that it would have had.” The court heard that Glover had worked previously as a school cleaner but there had been no incidents.
Glover was jailed for two-and-a-half years. He was given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order and he must register as a sex offender for life.