David Asser was caught trying to meet a girl he thought was real

A 49-year-old man who orchestrated a meeting with a twelve-year-old girl through online chatrooms only to find he had been set up has been jailed for more than two years.

David Asser, from Hertford Road, admitted one count of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a girl under the age of 16 and one count of attempting to meet a girl under the age of 16, following grooming.

On Tuesday, 23rd November he was sentenced at Wood Green Crown Court to 28 months’ imprisonment and will be recorded on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

Asser began communicating with the girl on an online chatroom in November 2020; despite the ‘girl’ stating she was aged twelve, Asser continued engaging with her, including making sexually explicit suggestions.

However, unbeknown to Asser he was actually communicating with an adult who was pretending to be a young girl. Over the next week, Asser continued to communicate, making arrangements for the pair to meet while continuing the sexually explicit conversations.

On 7th December, Asser went to meet the girl at a pre-arranged place in Mandeville Road, Freezywater. However, when he arrived he was confronted and detained by an online civilian group. Police were called and Asser was arrested.

Items were seized from his address which laid bare his attempts to groom and sexually exploit the fictional girl he thought he was communicating with.

Detective Constable Lee Jeffrey from the North Area Command Unit said: “David Asser was fully aware of the age of the girl he believed he was communicating with yet, despite this, he persisted in making sexually explicit suggestions to her and then made efforts to physically meet with her.

“His actions are deplorable and it is right he has been held to account for this.”

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