Ian Hunter found guilty of sexual assault and possessing indecent images of children
A paedophile who used to an internet chat room to befriend teenage girls has been been jailed for two years. 55 year old Ian Hunter from Chiswick pleaded guilty to the sexual assault of a 14-year-old girl and 16 counts of possessing indecent images of children.
Hunter used the pseudonym Popcorn Puppydog and pretended to be a female children's author in her twenties on a social networking site.
After gaining the trust of the young teenagers and being able to view their messages as well as photographs of the girls, their friends and their families, he admitted that he was in fact a man in his 50's.
Whilst most of the girls rejected him, the few that didn't enabled him to carry on viewing their messages.
From these messages he learnt about a school trip to the Tate Modern and it was here that he was caught on camera by the teenagers eventually leading to his arrest.
Following the incident in the Tate Modern, one of the girls told The Sun newspaper, “My friend asked who he was and he replied, ‘I’m Popcorn Puppydog’. We thought ‘Oh my God’ and just freaked out. One of my friends burst into tears.
“I gave one girl my mobile. He smiled straight into the lens as we filmed him. He rubbed one of my friends on her back and said, ‘I’ve come here to reassure you I’m not a weirdo’. But we quickly walked away and told someone.”
Hunter was thrown out by security and when detectives searched his Chiswick home they discovered over 20,000 child abuse and adult porn pictures and magazines.
The investigation also revealed that Hunter had applied for caretaker positions at two London girls' schools as well as communicating with a jailed registered sex offender.
Commenting after the sentencing, Detective Inspector David Gray said, "This is an insidious crime committed by a predatory male."
October 31, 2007