By James Simons-
An Essex police officer has astonishingly been spared jail, after using a dating app Grindr to groom what he believed to be a 15-year-old boy has been spared jail.
Essex police officer DC Jonathan Davies-Brewin was spectacularly snared by a paedophile hunter posing as the teenager on the app. Police found sexual toys and devices on him
The man told officers his capture was “long overdue,” and they had “done him a favour”.
The officer escaped with a nine-month prison sentence, suspended for two years today at Chelmsford Crown Court. It will make many wonder to what extent the law takes grooming as a serious offence, and how much protection it offers victims and potential victims of paedophilia.
He must be counting his lucky stars, but many will say he did not serve full his punishment for his offence.
Davies-Brewin, of East Hill, Colchester, admitted to arranging a meeting with the ‘teenager’ after grooming her in June last year.
The 50-year-old was snared when he arrived for the meeting at a Tesco, in Marks Farm, Braintree. He was met by a vigilante adult and police colleague.
Mitigating for the officer, Richard Conley, said Davies-Brewin’s comments were a “reflection he was engaging in risky behaviour” which
the court heard bordered on obsession with casual encounters. This was meant to play down the seriousness of the offence, but it worked.
DECISIVE
The judge highlighted Brewin’s intentions as a decisive factor, especially with his expected full knowledge of the law. He said Brewin had come within ”a whiskier of prison’‘, but he did not believe Brewin will repeat his offence. The reasoning here is riddled with holes
because the judge has no way of telling. What saved this officer was the fact the court could not establish the ages of the boys he was grooming. He walks free, but his reputation is in tatters.