Loner jailed for preying on girls

A dangerous loner who preyed on young girls and threatened to burn down one teenage victim's family home was jailed indefinitely today.

Dennis Forster, 27, used Facebook to contact more than 200 girls online, sending some of them gifts and flattering them, before asking them to perform sex acts for him, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The security guard who lived in a caravan also tried to arrange meetings with some of the girls, none of whom were aged over 15, and talked about having sex with them.

He persuaded some to send him indecent images of themselves, while others would be cajoled into carrying out his requests with threats about turning them into prostitutes.

Forster, of Corporation Street, Stockton, Teesside, admitted 22 charges including incitement to engage in sexual activity with children, incitement to involve the girls in pornography, incitement to prostitute a child, and threatening to kidnap one girl and sell her for sex.

He sent one girl a Facebook message saying: "I cannot wait for you to turn 16. We could be Mr and Mrs Dennis Forster and make a big bump."

He sent her a mobile phone, a necklace and a wedding ring through the post.

When police began investigating the contact between the two, Forster threatened to burn down her mother's house, and when he spotted a Facebook update which said she had a new boyfriend, the defendant told her he and some friends would bomb her home.

The charges, only a small sample of his offending, related to 11 girls who lived across the country.

Judge Howard Crowson, sentencing, said: "It is clear to me you are a man who preys upon teenage girls.

"You approached them at a stage in their lives when they are highly vulnerable.

"Some would be flattered by the attention of an older man, and later perhaps embarrassed and frightened to do anything about it.

"In this case you have been discovered."

Judge Crowson said he would notionally have received a 13-year sentence, but he was being jailed indefinitely for public protection. He cannot be assessed if he is safe for release for six-and-a-half years.

Forster, who had requested to be sentenced via videolink, did not react to the sentence.

The judge informed him: "You continue to pose a high risk of harm which in my judgment is unmanageable in the community."

Stephen Constantine, defending, said Forster had never met any of the girls and there was "no small degree of fantasising" about the offending.

The mother of one victim, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, said: "The case highlights the need for all parents to remain vigilant concerning their children's use of social networking sites.

"It is neither the children nor the sites that are to be blamed, but the predators such as Forster who utilise them for their own depraved purposes."

PA