August 2020 Paedophile caught after 12-year-old’s mum gave her phone with tracking app A convicted paedophile who lured a young girl to his home with offers of pizza, cash and cigarettes was caught after her worried mum gave her a phone loaded with a tracking app. Bolton Crown Court heard how the 12-year-old, described as “vulnerable”, had been visiting 65-year-old David Smith’s Farnworth flat. Four years ago at Warwick Crown Court, under his previous name of Dennis Ogden, Smith was jailed for possessing indecent images of children. After his release he moved to Bolton but, as part of a sexual offences prevention order, he was banned from having any unsupervised contact with children. However, Helen Longworth, prosecuting, told how, in January this year, police became concerned that the child may have been meeting men and her phone was seized. “Her mother gave her another phone so she could keep in contact with her. This phone had the facility to track her movement,” said Miss Longworth. “It allowed her mother to check on her whereabouts when she was away from home.” At 4pm on February 24 the girl went out, saying she was going to meet a friend but when the mum checked the phone 90 minutes later she saw it was at flats on Rawson Avenue, Farnworth. The girl’s friend, who had been with her that day, later told police how they did not have money to buy cigarettes but her pal said she could get some from a man she knew . The girl went into Smith’s flat and came back out with cigarettes. Police examination of the girl’s original phone revealed she had saved Smith’s number as “Old Man” in her contacts. A series of text messages between the pair on January 28 was found showing them making arrangements for her to go to his home and he offered to give her pizza. “I’m home alone now,” he told her. “I can’t come yet, you’re forgetting I am at school,” she replied before asking if he could give her £10 so she could buy things for her mother. “I’ll do anything. Might come a bit earlier so we have a lot of time,” she told him. When arrested Smith denied meeting the child or inviting her to his flat but, shortly before his trial, pleaded guilty to breaking the terms of his sexual offences prevention order. He had already previously broken court orders by not telling police he had changed his name by deed poll and had a laptop at his home which he had not disclosed. Sentencing Smith to 30 months behind bars, the Honorary Recorder of Bolton, Judge Martin Walsh told him: “You incited this highly vulnerable child into your home. There must have been some sexual element towards the incitement. “This was a very serious breach.” May 2016 Man jailed for child sex images after suspicious activity in park A Leamington man has been jailed after admitting making indecent images of children – crimes which were uncovered after he was spotted acting suspiciously in a town park. Dennis Ogden, aged 61, of Gresham Avenue was sentenced to nine months in prison at Warwick Crown Court on Monday after pleading guilty to four counts of possessing indecent images of children at an earlier hearing. He admitted possessing and making indecent images and was placed on the sex offender register for 10 years. Ogden was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order. The charges were brought after a number of images of children were discovered by police following a complaint by a member of the public who reported seeing him acting suspiciously in a park.