'Predatory' Leeds Paedophile Andrew Pitcher Jailed After Undercover Sting

A "predatory" paedophile from Leeds has been jailed for trying to arrange a "fun" sex session with a father and daughter who turned out to be undercover police officers.

Andrew Pitcher, 56, who also had a "huge" child porn collection of 76,000 images, sent the "father" indecent images and explained how much he was looking forward to their get-together.

Later, he started "grooming" the 14-year-old online, encouraging her to perform a sex act and leaving little doubt as to what he wanted to do with her.

Eventually the curtain and blind maker travelled from his home in Roundhay to a south London Tube station to meet her. But instead of the assignation he had hoped for, he was met by officers from the Met's Paedophile Unit.

At London's Southwark Crown Court, Judge Nicholas Loraine-Smith imposed an indeterminate sentence for the public protection on Pitcher, with a minimum term of five years, six months.

He was also given concurrent jail sentences of up to two years, six months, for 22 other counts including 10 charges of making child porn, 10 of distributing child porn and two possession counts.

Passing sentence the judge said Pitcher had derived a "sense of pleasure" from his activities which had given him a way to "live out his fantasies".

He added: "I am of the view that you are a dangerous and predatory sex offender. I have considered the images that you kept so voraciously and I have read the chat log.

"In my opinion there's a serious risk to young girls of your causing personal trauma or psychological harm."

He also said there was a "serious risk" to the public of "personal injury by Pitcher committing further offences".

Yorkshire Evening Post