Groomed FOR SEX By Online Paedo
Pervert preyed on chat-room teen Sex at just 14, then blackmailed Not his only young target
As a message pinged up on my computer screen, I felt familiar butterflies. Hey, gorgeous! How was your day? it read.
It was from John Dodd, then 21. We’d been talking online for a couple of weeks in the chat room Bearshare.
He was a complete stranger, but we’d really hit it off. I was just 13, he was eight years older.
But John was always there to listen to my problems. My parents had recently separated and I was finding it tough.
You’ll be OK, things will get better, John reassured me.
Quickly, our conversations moved to MSN messenger.
Then we were texting and chatting over the phone.
And we’d already seen each other’s profile pictures on Bearshare.
‘I think you’re beautiful,’ John said one night on the phone. I could feel myself blushing. A spotty teen, I was really flattered that an older guy was giving me attention.
And I knew I was starting to develop feelings for him.
I didn’t tell my mum about John. I knew that she’d hit the roof about his age.
Then, one night, John phoned me.
‘I love you,’ he blurted out.
My heart flipped with excitement.
‘I love you, too,’ I blushed, before hanging up with childish embarrassment.
After that, John asked to meet up. He lived in Birmingham with his mum. ‘Come and visit,’ he said. It was an hour away on the train from where I lived.
So, one weekend in 2008, I told Mum I was having a sleepover at a friend’s.
Then I got a train to Birmingham, using my pocket money for a ticket.
John was waiting for me at the station. He looked just like the photos I’d seen.
As he kissed me on the lips, I felt so grown up. Then he took me back to his mum’s.
‘I’ve told her you’re 16,’ he warned me.
I didn’t question why he’d lied. After all, I’d been lying to my own mum about him.
We spent the weekend in his bedroom, watching films.
Then we slept together in his bed. By now I was 14, and it was my first time, but I truly believed we were in love, so I didn’t regret it. Back at home, Mum quizzed me about where I’d been. She was suspicious – so, in the end, I told her about John. ‘He’s my age, and he lives round here,’ I fibbed to her. ‘I want to meet him,’ she told me. ‘Invite him round for tea.’ ‘He’s busy with schoolwork,’ I said. Soon, I started visiting John every month. We’d sleep together and he’d tell me he loved me. And I’d spend most nights talking to him on the phone.
But, after we’d been seeing each other a year, I started to feel uneasy. By now, John had turned 22.
Threats
I don’t know what sparked it, but I began to question what a grown man would see in someone my age – I was still only a kid.
I tried to end things, but John didn’t take it well.
‘I’ll tell your mum that you’ve been lying,’ he threatened.
I couldn’t bear her knowing about John, what we’d done. She’d be really disappointed.
I was so terrified of Mum finding out that I carried on seeing him for another year.
But, by the time I was 15, I’d
I used my pocket money for a ticket to go and see him
had enough.
I knew our relationship wasn’t right. I’d been just 13 when he’d begun flirting with me.
He’s a pervert, I realised.
I finally broke things off and lied to him that my mum knew everything.
‘I’ve told her all about you,’ I said.
Now John couldn’t blackmail me and he suddenly backed off.
Shortly after, I really did come clean to Mum.
She’d noticed that I was acting differently, wasn’t myself.
‘Tell me what’s going on,’ she urged.
So I confessed all aboutb t my relationshipl ti hi with ithj John.h She was distraught.
‘We have to report him to the police,’ she sobbed.
‘No way!’ I replied.
I wanted to forget all about John, put everything behind me.
But I struggled to accept what’d happened. I felt dirty – like John had used me to fulfil a sick, perverted fantasy.
Laptop images
Eventually, Mum arranged for me to have counselling. And I found myself breaking down to a counsellor.
‘You have to go to the police, or we will,’ the counsellor said.
They had a duty to protect other young girls against John.
I knew they were right – I couldn’t let him prey on another young girl like me.
So I reported him to the police.
It took a while for the police to gather evidence. But, eventually, in December 2013, John Dodd was arrested. At first, he denied everything. But police found some horrifying things on his laptop – indecent images of children, sick, seedy social media conversations with underage girls…
They’d even found a message from another girl who, in reply to one of John’s requests said, I’m not doing that, I’m 12 for God’s sake.
In June 2015, John Dodd, 27, appeared at Birmingham Crown Court.
He changed his plea to guilty, admitting 17 offences, including sexual activity with a child, possessing indecent images of children and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.
He was jailed for 11 years, banned indefinitely from living with girls under 16, and banned from communicating with under-18s on the Internet.
No sentence will ever undo what John Dodd did to me, though. I still suffer from depression, lack confidence.
Recently, I got engaged to my new partner and we’re planning to marry next year.
He knows all about Dodd and is really supportive.
I’ll never forget what happened. I was just a kid when Dodd preyed on me.
He was an adult and knew exactly what he was doing.
I thought I was in love, but I was too young to realise the truth… That John Dodd was nothing but a pervert.
dodd: Predator No sentence will ever undo what Dodd did to me