A Wisbech paedophile has been jailed after online safeguarding group ‘Confronted and Caught’ (C&C) reported him to Cambridgeshire police at the height of the Covid pandemic lockdown. The online group – with 250,000 followers on Facebook – caught Alfred (Fred) Dempster, 57, when he began talking to who he thought was a 11-year-old girl but was actually part of the Confronted and Caught team.
On Friday (2 February), at Peterborough Crown Court, Dempster was jailed for two years and six months, having pleaded guilty to two counts of attempting to cause/incite a girl aged 13 to 15 to engage in sexual activity.
Two counts of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, which Dempster denied, were ordered to lie on file.
C&C posted to their Facebook page: “There was no sting due to it being in lockdown. This is why people do not know about it.
“The evidence was handed straight to the police as the team could not go out and sting him live.
“They arrested him, and he has since been charged. Some cases do take a long time to get a predator charged and then to court. Downloads of phones, computers, televisions, if necessary, they all take time.”
Dempster tried to lure two people he believed were children into sexual activity.
He began talking to who he thought was an 11-year-old girl on KIK Messenger before moving onto WhatsApp on New Year’s Day 2020.
He asked them to send an explicit photo, touch themselves and ask to be called “Daddy”.
The contact ended on 9 January 2020.
In November of that year, Dempster also began speaking to another decoy, this time one pretending to be a 14-year-old girl.
Again, on KIK and WhatsApp, Dempster asked for photos, said he wanted to have sex and also encouraged them to touch themselves.
Dempster was arrested at his home in Nene Quay, Wisbech, on 11 January 2021, and his electronic devices seized.
DC Zip Lloyd said: “This was a disgusting case where Dempster showed intent to potentially sexually assault two children.”
C&C is Manchester based and describes itself as “online safeguarding team” and a “highly established hunting group” that was created in October 2018.
It says it was formed to raise awareness of online predators. “and we specialise in Confronting and Catching online predators”.
It urges parents to be aware of online predators.
“Check your children’s devices, don’t let them become victims of online grooming,” says C&C. “Be aware of who they talk to.”
