PICTURED: Child sex offender jailed for 20 years for abusing two girls

A CHILD sex offender who once looked at pornography on his victims' phones has been locked up for 20 years.

David Poucher (42), of St Withold Avenue, Thurcroft, was found guilty of 19 child sex offences against two girls following a week-long trial at Sheffield Crown Court.

He was sentenced to 20 years in jail on Monday and was put on the sex offender’s register for life 

Poucher, who abused two girls between July 2008 and July 2019, had denied all of the charges against him but was found guilty by a jury last Friday.

During the trial, jurors heard Poucher had committed 12 offences against a girl between 2009 and 2019.

That girl had said to the police after the allegations had been made: "He always told me not to tell anyone."

Responding to that statement during his police interview, the jury heard that Poucher had told officers: “I have not done any of that.

“I have hugged and kissed her to show that I’m there for her.

“I just put my arms around her and kissed her on the cheek.

“I may have got her on her neck but that’s it.”

He had rejected a suggestion by the officer that he had been a “touchy-feely” person.

Poucher committed a further seven offences against a second girl between 2008 and 2013, the court heard.

He told police that he had only hugged and kissed her.

The jury heard that when the police put the allegations to him he had said: “I would never have done anything like that.”

Poucher said he had not known why the girls would make allegations against him.

“I have never touched them girls like they are saying,” he had told the officer.

“I am not sexually attracted to them.”

Poucher told the officers that he would look at pornography “a couple of times a week” and admitted to them that he had looked at pornography on the complainants’ phones.

“I did it once, but I didn’t do it again,” he said.

“It felt wrong.”

Poucher told the officer it had been a “sickening” thing to do.

Ms Joy Merriam, defending Poucher, had asked the officer in the case, Det Con Emma Parsons, if any indecent images of children had been found on her client’s phone.

“No, there wasn’t,” she said.

Poucher was found guilty of nine counts of rape of a child under 13, four counts of sexual assault, four counts of causing or inciting a girl to engage in sexual activity and two counts of rape.