February 2017 Quick-thinking schoolgirl takes photo of pervert as he tries to abduct her A pervert was caught after a quick-thinking schoolgirl took a picture of him as he tried to snatch her in the street. Roger Seath, 45, cornered the 14-year-old girl against a wall and threatened to ‘spank’ her if she didn’t go with him. But she snapped a photo of her attacker and grabbed the attention of a driver in Southsea, Hampshire. A motorist who was driving past when Seath tried to grab the girl, in Southsea, Hants, confronted him as the terrified and tearful teen was led to safety. When police arrived Seath, who had threatened to ‘spank’ the girl if she did not go with him, said: ‘Guilty as charged’.
The girl, who cannot be named for legal reasons, said her mother had told her to take a picture of any stranger who approached her. Judge Anne Arnold said: ‘Because she, very fortunately, had been pre-warned by her parent and was an intelligent and alert girl with sufficient wherewithal to do exactly what she’d been told to do if approached by somebody such as yourself and that was why she took your photograph, freezing your approach long enough to be assisted.’ Police later found videos on his iPhone of other schoolgirls he’d been following. In footage shown to the court, Seath films two girls, saying: ‘The smaller one is cuter though, the 14-year-old wasn’t interested, I offered her 20 quid and everything.’ ‘I’m going to have to go now, that’s all you’re getting.’ It was unclear if Seath had been talking on the phone to another person while recording. Two other videos showed him discreetly filming two girls on city streets. Seath was also found to have 300 images of schoolgirls from a social media site. And he made 4,246 searches on his phone in one week – 600 a day – most of them related to teenage girls. Seath admitted attempted abduction with intent to commit a sexual offence and having a bladed knife in a public place. He was sentenced to 33 months in jail. He must also sign the sex offenders’ register for 10 years, as well as a lifetime order which restricts his access to children, and pay a £170 victim surcharge.