DAVID HIPPERSEN OF WARWICKSHIRE JAILED FOR INDECENT IMAGES AND SEXUAL OFFENSES

In May 2004, a 22-year-old man from Hitchin, Hertfordshire, named David Hipperson, was jailed for four months after being found in a Warwickshire hotel with an underage girl. He had previously received a rehabilitation order in October of the previous year after admitting to gross indecency with the girl.

Further investigations revealed that Hipperson possessed more than 1,000 indecent images of children on his laptop. As a result, he was sentenced to jail and ordered to register as a sex offender for seven years. He pleaded guilty to 11 charges of making indecent images of children, along with one charge of possessing a total of 1,156 images, which included four images depicting adults having sex with children.

Prosecutor Matthew Brook stated that police seized Hipperson’s laptop after discovering him in a hotel room at the Falstaff Hotel in Leamington in August of the previous year. Hipperson, of Hitchin, had been found with a 15-year-old girl he had met through an internet chatroom.

In October 2003, Hipperson was also sentenced to a two-year community rehabilitation order for having sex with a 14-year-old girl he met online. He had pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to gross indecency with a girl under 16.

The court was told that Hipperson’s relationship with the girl began after he posted a profile online, which led to them corresponding. In February this year, Hipperson traveled to Leamington, where the girl was from, and they stayed at a hotel, having sex. They returned to the same hotel two more times, but during their last encounter, police discovered them.

The girl had told Hipperson she was 16 and studying hairdressing at a local college. He only learned she was underage after their second sexual encounter.

Defending Hipperson, Ian Lewis described him as a "relatively shy young man" who found it easier to communicate online than face-to-face. He commented, "This is not a case of internet grooming. He did not set out to find the company of girls who are not of lawful age. He has been a victim of his own inexperience and trusting nature."

Prosecutor Zaheer Aszal added that Hipperson claimed to be in love with the girl, his first girlfriend, and that he had been a virgin before their relationship.