Man who persistently asked school girls to go with him jailed
It happened in Skegness and Lincoln
Last updated 6th Nov 2020
A man who persistently approached school girls in the street asking them to go with him has been jailed at Lincoln Crown Court.
Darren Chambers, 37, twice approached girls in the Skegness area after loitering around a secondary school as the students left for home.
Later he travelled to Lincoln and targeted three young girls on the city’s Tower Estate.
They sought help from two adult women who confronted Chambers before calling police who then arrested him.
Siward James-Moore, prosecuting, said Chambers walked up to two 14-year-old girls who were walking along an alleyway near to Skegness Academy and said to them:
“Darren is looking for a good time tonight”.
Chambers went on to make sexualised comments to the two girls who were terrified and managed to run into the school where they sought help from a teacher.
Three weeks later Chambers was again hanging around the school at closing time.
This time he approached two 11-year-old girls in an alleyway.
Mr James-Moore said Chambers tapped one of the girls on the shoulder and tried to grab both of them.
“He failed to do so because both girls ran away.”
Chambers was arrested the following day and denied he had done anything wrong.
He was released under investigation but in August 2019 again made approaches to girls.
Mr James-Moore said that the girls were on Roman Pavement on the Tower Estate in Lincoln when Chambers walked up to them and told them to be wary of a man called Brian who, he said, was a danger to young girls.
The girls, one aged nine and the other two aged 12, walked off and went down an alleyway towards a local park. Chambers followed them and asked them to go to Skegness with him.
The girls told him they needed to go home to get the bus fare and ran off seeking help from a woman passer-by.
The woman stayed with them and confronted Chambers when he appeared.
“The defendant begged her not to call the police but she did and remained with him until officers arrived and arrested him.”
Chambers, 37, of no fixed address, admitted a charge of sexual communication with a child in relation to the first incident in Skegness on 12 March last year.
He admitted two charges of attempted child abduction in relation to the second Skegness incident on 1 April last year and admitted a further charge of attempted child abduction in Lincoln on 26 August 2019.
Chambers, who refused to leave his prison cell to attend the video link hearing, was jailed in his absence for a total of 43 months.
He also was placed on the sex offenders’ register for life and given an indefinite sexual harm prevention order which includes a condition not to approach or engage in conversation with any girl under the age of 18.
Recorder Graham Huston, passing sentence, said:
“These offences represent a determined course of conduct. These are repeated offences with a clear sexual motive. They were persistent. These are serious offences and the risk going forward is significant.”
The Recorder said the hearing had been delayed on a number of occasions due to Chambers refusing to attend and refusing to engage with the probation service and a psychiatrist for reports to be prepared
Neil Sands, in mitigation, said that Chambers had admitted the offences and as a result of his arrest in Lincoln has been in custody since the end of August last year.