A former senior social worker (formerly of Pembrokeshire) who attempted to arrange to meet children for sex, and admitted enjoying ‘caressing’ a young girl has been jailed for five years.
When police arrested Richard Ford (formerly known as Dale Richard Barker) in September 2022, they discovered more than 900 indecent images of children on his computers. Further enquiries revealed he had also sexually assaulted a child on three occasions.
The 51-year-old, formerly of Pembrokeshire, now of Princess Way Road, Hackney, was brought to Dyfed-Powys Police’s attention by two separate police officers who were working on an operation targeting people involved in online sexual exploitation. The operation deploys undercover officers with specialist online training on a range of social media sites to identify people with a sexual interest in children.
Information provided by the undercover team showed Ford had been communicating with officers on social networks for between four and six months.
Dyfed-Powys Police Detective Constable Joe Hartnell said: “One of the officers purported to be a woman with a 13-year-old daughter, while the other said they were a man with an 11-year-old adopted son, and a seven-year-old foster daughter.
“Believing the officers to be adults with a sexual interest in children, Ford took part in sexualised chat, asking to meet the officers and their children with the intention of carrying out sexual acts.
“Thankfully Ford was in contact with undercover officers at this point, and not members of the public with real children who could have come to serious harm. It is believed he had been talking to at least one other adult online, however it’s not known who this was.”
Dyfed-Powys Police’s Police Online Investigation Team and Criminal Investigation Department seized 19 digital devices at his home and 913 indecent images of children were later found – with more than 250 classified as Category A, the most serious.
It was established that Ford was interested in girls aged between 7 and 14, and had made comments online about ‘groping’ girls.
He appeared at Swansea Crown Court on Monday, February 26, where he was sentenced to five years in prison.