A one-in-a-billion DNA breakthrough has led to a sexual predator being put behind bars – nearly 30 years after committing his crimes.
David Pearce, 70, from Cambridgeshire, was sentenced at Snaresbrook Crown Court on Friday to 18 years in prison.
He had previously pleaded guilty to seven sex offences.
Prosecutors said that on 23 April 1990, Pearce went to the Barking park lido, where he pretended to be a police officer or a caretaker.
He four children –two boys and two girls, aged between eight and 11 – that keys were missing, before assaulting them.
The children ran to a nearby police station to report what had happened, enabling officers to gather statements, put a cordon in place and prevent the scene becoming contaminated.
An e-fit issued in 1996 of the Barking lido attackerPADNA was discovered on a bench in a changing cubicle, but it did not match anyone on the database at the time.
Read More
The case was filed, pending further investigative opportunities coming to light, after initial lines of inquiry were exhausted.
In 2019, police said Pearce was arrested for a separate offence of voyeurism and the DNA he provided was a one-in-a-billion match to the suspect at the lido.
Detectives then reviewed similar reports and found victim statements from a 1996 incident which followed an identical pattern of offending.
In that case, the 13-year-old victim said a man had forced her into shrubbery in a Barking park and assaulted her as he claimed to search for a pair of lost keys.
Pearce was questioned in relation to the 1996 incident not long after his initial arrest in 2019, and police said that the victim-survivor attended an identification parade where she confirmed Pearce as the man who had assaulted her.
The forensics and successful identification, as well as the circumstantial evidence which showed Pearce living in the area in 1990 and owning a food truck situated close to the park in 1996, provided detectives with enough to charge him.
A photo issued by the Metropolitan Police of David Pearce in 1990PADetective Constable Tony Anionwu, from the Met’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 actions had a lasting impact, and I would like to thank the victim-survivors for their unwavering resilience and profound patience while we strived for justice.
“Our dedicated team of officers have handled this case with sensitivity. As a force we remain committed to securing justice for anyone who has experienced a sexual assault, no matter when they occurred, and over the past five years we have more than tripled arrests and charges for this crime.”
Forensic scientist Bridget March, who was responsible for 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.
“The advances in science and discovery of the match to Pearce’s DNA profile ultimately paved the way to secure admissible evidence.”
Police said that Pearce denied a further four counts of indecent assault, six counts of attempting an act of indecency with a child and two counts of indecency with a child relating to 12 other children, all offences alleged to have taken place in the 1990s.
Police said that the prosecution chose to leave those charges on file after his guilty pleas were entered.