DAVID PEARCE – CAMBRIDGESHIRE

❌DAVID PEARCE – CAMBRIDGESHIRE❌

Man jailed for child sex assault in Barking after DNA match

A convicted sex offender has been jailed for 18 years after a DNA breakthrough linked him to a decades-old child sexual assault case.

David Pearce, 70, from Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty to seven sex offences following the prosecution’s opening statement at Snaresbrook Crown Court on May 6, and was sentenced at the same court on Friday (July 3).

The conviction stems from a 1990 incident in Barking, east London, where Pearce, posing as a caretaker, lured four children into a changing area at a lido under the pretence of searching for lost keys.

He then forced them to undress and sexually assaulted them.

Despite evidence gathered at the time, including semen found on a bench, police were unable to identify the offender as no match was found on the DNA database.

The case went cold until Pearce was arrested in 2019 for an unrelated voyeurism offence.

The DNA sample he provided was found to be a one-in-a-billion match to the 1990 lido attack.

Detective Constable Tony Anionwu from the Metropolitan Police’s Specialist Crime Unit said: “Pearce was a predator who disguised himself as someone in a position of trust to exploit and assault young children.”

His arrest led officers to review other unsolved cases, including a 1996 attack on a 13-year-old girl in Barking who reported being assaulted by a man searching for lost keys.

The victim later identified Pearce in an ID parade.

Further evidence showed Pearce lived nearby in 1990 and operated a food truck close to the park where the 1996 offence occurred.

Forensic scientist Bridget March, who identified the DNA match in 2019, said:
“Forensics play a key role in investigations, with our team of professionals meticulously examining items to locate and present evidence, backed by science.”

On Wednesday, May 6, Pearce denied additional offences related to 12 other children from the 1990s.