Paedophile Abused His Position As Volunatry Worker

David Harper was a trusted volunteer who abused two young boys and sent pictures boasting of his vile acts to a paedophile in America.

He was a larger than life character who helped on the Dean Forest Railway. Dressing up as the Fat Controller and Winston Churchill in the past, he happily posed with children to promote events for the society.

But behind closed doors, the 65-year-old abused his position of trust by befriending a young steam enthusiast who he groomed for sex.

Later, when the 12-year-old began resisting his advances, he wrote a “love letter” to him begging him to reconsider.

And when Harper turned his vile attentions to a second young victim, aged 10, he took pictures of his offences and emailed them to a paedophile in America.

He signed his email “Enjoy! All my special love, hugs and kisses. David.”

His vile secret was only discovered when he handed in his computer for repairs at a Lydney firm.

Staff there found files of child porn images and reported him to police.

Yesterday, the father-of-five, was jailed for eight years.

Jailing him at Gloucester Crown Court, Judge Jamie Tabor QC said his depravity “knew no bounds”.

The judge added: “You have sunk just about as low as a man can sink.”

Harper, who has flowing grey hair and a Dickensian goatee beard and moustache, admitted gross indecency with each of the two boys, 11 offences of making indecent images of children and one of distributing an indecent image.

Prosecutor Julian Kesner told the court that the case came to light when Harper took his computer to be repaired at Imagitec in Lydney and staff opened folders and found images and videos of young children.

“These children were naked and engaged in acts of sexual activity with adult men,” Mr Kesner said.

Police went to Harper’s home on January 24, this year and seized 38 incriminating evidence including other computers with pornographic pictures on them and old 8mm films.

When questioned Harper, of Rockfield Road, Monmouth, told police he had been married twice and had worked for 27 years in Holland before returning to the UK in 2001 because of illness.

“He said he then started work with the Dean Forest Railway,” said Mr Kesner.

“He admitted collecting images of children being abused for 12 years. At least 25,000 indecent images were found on the computer hard drives seized.

“What the police unearthed was considerable evidence of child abuse by this man,” he said.

“In his property the police found what is called a ‘love letter’ to one of the boys. He had met that boy in 2003 when he was 12.”

The boy was a keen steam railway enthusiast who would go to the Dean Forest Railway and to see his grandparents.

The grandparents did not have suitable accommodation for the boy and Harper offered to let him stay with him.

“The boy says that at first he was unhappy and rejected the defendant’s advances. But the defendant, a man in his sixties, said to this 12-yea- old boy ‘Just think it’s one of your girlfriends’,” he said.

Mr Kesner said Harper admitted he had performed a sex act on the boy.

The prosecutor then read out the explicitly-worded letter which stated: “You used to be much more free with me than you are now. Yes, I am talking about sex and how you used to let me do things with you. You used to be much more relaxed about it but not any more.

“I believe close physical contact is the best way to show that you love someone.”

The letter went on to describe graphically the indecencies Harper had subject the boy to and added: “I do so desperately want to do them again. It is the best way I know of showing you I love you.”

He added: “Please let me love you. Remember I really do love you.”

Mr Kesner said police then saw film of Harper engaged in sexual activity with the second boy, then aged 10.

“He had sent these images to a paedophile in America, Michael Prince, to whom he wrote several emails,” he said.

Mr Kesner said one of the emails attached to some of the indecent images said: “These are the first three of the new photos of xxxxx. I also feature in one or two. Enjoy! All my special love, hugs and kisses. David.”

Judge Jamie Tabor QC said he had viewed some of the seized 26,176 images and found some to be ‘frankly horrendous’.

Joe Maloney, defending, said he acknowledged the case was ‘extremely serious’ and Harper ‘realistic’ about the outcome.

Jailing Harper for a total of eight years the judge told him:

“You are not a classic paedophile. You have been married twice and I accept that you also have natural desires.

“But for a long time you have had designs on young children. You groomed one boy to such an extent that by the end you were writing him love letters which describe only too clearly the type of revolting activity that you got up to. I have no doubt you would have deeply affected him for life.

“In the case of the other boy your depravity knew no bounds. You encouraged him to perform sexual acts on you and you did them upon him.

“You took pictures of it and not content with that you published those pictures abroad. There were 25,000 images at least on your hard drives and I suspect many more.

“They show children being tortured severely and committing acts of bestiality. Such images, frankly, demonstrate your depraved mind. It is nothing short of depraved.”

For gross indecency with the first boy Harper was sentenced to three years jail with three years consecutively for the similar charge relating to the second boy.

The judge added two years consecutively for the 11 offences of possessing indecent images and one of distributing an indecent image.

He told Harper he would have to serve at least two-thirds of the eight-year term and ordered him to sign the sex offenders register for life, imposing a sexual offences prevention order which bans Harper from activities including taking photographs of children or accessing websites featuring children.

Speaking after the case, Nathan Swanwick, Managing Director of Imagitec Ltd in Lydney who first alerted the police after taking Harper’s computer in for repair said: “Mr Harper brought in an external hard drive for full data recovery, stating he had lost everything and was unable to open any folders.

“On testing folder functionality, the technician was shocked to be faced with horrific images and was visibly shaken when he brought it to my attention.

“Imagitec has established a great deal of trust from our customers and we make every effort to ensure our customers privacy is kept intact, but it was immediately clear to me this case needed to be reported for the sake and safety of the poor children.”

Chief Inspector David Wasley said yesterday: “The severity of the sentence reflects the seriousness of the offences involved. It is important we should not forget the impact of this abuse on the two victims.

“We would like to thank the computer shop staff who brought this matter to our attention.”

When asked for a comment, Company Director of the Dean Forest Railway Peter Adams said that the company would be preparing a statement which would be released next week.