Paedophile jailed for 21 years for travelling abroad to sexually abuse children

David Mould, 68, used the dark web to share stories about sexually abusing children and offer advice to others.

David Mould guilty to 24 offences largely related to child sex abuse (National Crime Agency/PA)

A pensioner has been jailed for 21 years after he travelled abroad to sexually abuse children in Asia.

David Mould, 68, of Seaford, East Sussex, made trips to the Philippines and Nepal between April 2018 and May 2019, to sexually abuse and exploit children, the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.

He would use the dark web under the username “Globe Trotter” on an international paedophile chat site which allowed users to share indecent images of children and use message boards to discuss and tell stories of abuse.

Prosecutors said Mould’s conversations showed he would travel to smaller cities and rural areas in the two countries to meet local families and befriend young boys, often offering gifts and money, in order to groom and sexually abuse them.

Mould, a moderator of the site, would provide advice for other paedophile sex tourists as well as encourage other users to commit similar offences internationally.

Mould was arrested by the National Crime Agency (NCA) on April 2, 2020, and a variety of digital equipment from his home and work address provided a wealth of evidence.

The NCA said Mould had chat logs saved on a hard drive, where he arranged to meet with a user of the website in Nepal and introduce him to young boys he had abused in the past, with the user explaining in later chats that he had travelled to the country and taken the boy back to his hotel room.

The user was later identified as an American citizen, who the NCA said was arrested in March 2021 and is now serving 14-year prison sentence in Nepal for sex offences.

Three boys in the Philippines are now being safeguarded and more than 100,000 indecent images of children along with four manuals detailing techniques on how to abuse children and avoid detection were recovered from Mould’s hard drive, the NCA said.

Mould pleaded guilty to 24 offences largely related to child sex abuse and was sentenced to 21 years imprisonment with an extended licence of seven years on Friday at Lewes Crown Court, the CPS said.

He was previously convicted in 2000 of making indecent images of children, for which he served four weeks in prison.

He has also been banned from travelling to 22 countries and will have to sign the sex offenders register.