DAVID ASSER SENTENCED IN ENFIELD FOR CHILD SEXUAL OFFENCES AFTER GROOMING AND FAILED MEET

A man who arranged to meet a girl he believed was 12 years old after grooming her online was ultimately caught and sentenced following his admission to child sexual offences.

David Asser, 49, of Hertford Road, Enfield, pleaded guilty on Wednesday, 25 August, at Wood Green Crown Court to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a girl under 16 and attempting to meet a girl under 16 following grooming. On Tuesday, 23 November, he was sentenced to 28 months in prison and will be registered on the Sex Offenders Register for ten years.

The investigation revealed that Asser had started communicating with the girl via an online chatroom in November 2020. Despite the girl stating she was 12, Asser continued the conversations, making sexually explicit suggestions. Unbeknownst to him, the person he was speaking with was actually an adult pretending to be a young girl.

Over the course of a week, Asser persistently engaged with the individual, making plans to meet in person while continuing to exchange sexually explicit messages. On 7 December, he traveled to the scheduled meeting point on Mandeville Road, Enfield. However, he was confronted and detained by an online civilian group before police arrived. During the subsequent investigation, authorities seized items from his residence demonstrating his grooming attempts and efforts to sexually exploit the girl he believed he was communicating with.

DC Lee Jeffrey from the North Area Command Unit stated, “David Asser was fully aware of the age of the girl he believed he was communicating with yet despite this, he persisted in making sexually explicit suggestions to her and then made efforts to physically meet with her. His actions are deplorable and it is right he has been held to account for this.”