London Septuagenarian to rot in jail as DNA exposes 1990s child sex crimes

By Kazeem Ugbodaga

A 70-year-old man David Pearce who posed as a caretaker to sexually assault children in the 1990s has been sentenced to 18 years in prison after a Metropolitan Police cold case investigation yielded irrefutable DNA evidence.

Pearce, from Cambridgeshire, pleaded guilty to seven sex offences at Snaresbrook Crown Court on 6 May and was sentenced on Friday, 3 July.

In 1990, Pearce approached four children at a lido in Barking, east London, claiming to search for lost keys. He lured them into a changing area, forced them to undress, and indecently assaulted them. The youngest victim was just eight years old. The children immediately reported the crime to police, enabling officers to secure the scene and recover semen from a wooden bench, from which a DNA profile was extracted.

Though the profile did not match any database entries at the time, the case remained open. A breakthrough came in 2019 when Pearce was arrested for a separate voyeurism offence. His DNA provided a one-in-a-billion match to the 1990 crime scene.

Further investigation linked him to a strikingly similar 1996 assault on a 13-year-old girl in a Barking park, where he again used the lost-keys pretext to isolate and assault her. The victim later identified Pearce in a parade. Circumstantial evidence, including his residence in the area in 1990 and ownership of a nearby food truck in 1996, strengthened the case.

Detective Constable Tony Anionwu of the Met’s Specialist Crime Unit described Pearce as “a predator who disguised himself as someone in a position of trust to exploit and assault young children.” He praised the victims’ resilience and patience in securing justice.

Forensic scientist Bridget March highlighted the critical role of scientific advances: “The discovery of the match to Pearce’s DNA profile ultimately paved the way to secure admissible evidence.”

Pearce denied additional charges relating to 12 other children in the 1990s, which were left on file. The Metropolitan Police noted a significant rise in reporting of historical sexual offences, reflecting greater victim confidence.

The force has committed £10 million to upgrade victim interview facilities as part of its commitment to delivering justice regardless of when crimes occurred.