December 2016 Aberystwyth paedophile snared in sting after release A Ceredigion paedophile caught in an online sting weeks after being released for a similar offence has been jailed. David John Williams, 54, of Aberystwyth, groomed a 14-year-old girl he met in an internet chat room while on licence in 2015. But Williams did not know he was in fact chatting to a man hoping to help police to catch sex offenders. He was jailed for 40 months at Swansea Crown Court after he admitted trying to facilitate child sex offences. Judge Geraint Walters said it was “very disturbing” that Williams reoffended so quickly after leaving prison, in September last year. “Despite the fact that you were sent to prison, you came back out and tried to do the same thing as you did before,” he said. “I have no shadow of a doubt that, untreated, you present a significant risk.
“You are addicted to the prospect of having sex with underage girls.” Williams, who also admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order, will be placed on the sex offenders’ register indefinitely. He was also made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order. September 2015 Paedophile snared after arranging to meet 12-year-old victim who was actually an undercover police officer A paedophile was snared after meeting a 12-year-old girl he had groomed online for sex – who turned out to be an undercover police officer. David John Williams was not wearing any underwear when he arrived at the Odeon cinema in Bridgend after arranging to meet the officer – posing as a girl called Beth – after chatting online to her over the course of a couple of weeks. The 53-year-old pleaded guilty to five counts of arranging the commission of child sex offences when he appeared at Cardiff Crown Court on Wednesday. He was jailed for 21 months. It followed a police sting centred around the fictitious girl. Under the username Welsh Gambler, Williams, of Llanon, Ceredigion, first contacted Beth on May 27 this year. Prosecutor Tony Trigg told a sentencing hearing: “He was talking to Beth, saying he liked talking to younger women. He said he thought Beth was cute.” “On May 29 there was a further conversation during which he said he would like to buy her food but it would be better if Beth were to bring a friend with her and he would tell the friend he was Beth’s uncle.” Talking about another conversation between the two, this time on June 3, Mr Trigg told the court Williams had offered to buy Beth jewellery, make-up and clothes. He also said he would take her to the cinema and asked her to wear a skirt – “the shorter the better”. And he told Beth to call him “Uncle David”. The following day he said he was looking forward to driving to Bridgend to meet Beth, saying they would go to the cinema then Porthcawl beach. Mr Trigg added: “He said he wanted to cuddle her, hold her hands and kiss her on the lips. “He said he wanted to play with her hair. He said he felt excited and naughty.” Beth did not turn up the following day but sent her apologies to Williams. And, still speaking via the online chatroom, Williams proceeded to go into increasingly graphic detail about more serious sex acts he wanted her to undertake. Mr Trigg told the hearing Williams had asked Beth if she knew what the age of consent was, saying: “He said he had no objection to breaking the law in that regard as long as she consented.” Police had identified their suspect by June 8, and two days later during a further conversation the 53-year-old told her he had been chatting to other girls online and that he had another ‘niece’, as Williams put it. On June 11, the pair arranged to meet at Bridgend’s Odeon cinema – and after Williams made his way there he was arrested by the police. Referring to the police sting, Mr Trigg said: “It was set up because it is a legitimate and proportionate way of trying to apprehend people engaged in these sorts of activities.” Sentencing, Judge Philip Richards told Williams: “It’s quite obvious that your intentions towards her were genuine in the sense that you wished to carry them out and malign in the sense of their nature. “It’s also quite clear that you intended to use her not simply for company but for sexual purposes.” As well as the 21-month jail sentence – which was lower than the term which could have been passed because a real child was not involved – a sexual harm prevention order was made against Williams.