'Images' - Rothwell paedophile's reply to officer who asked him what was on illicit tablet
A paedophile was found with a secret tablet after a police officer spotted a charging cable without a device plugged in.
Alfred Dempster kept a tablet hidden in his Rothwell house, which was discovered by his eagle-eyed supervising police officer.
While living in Cambridgeshire, the 57-year-old was imprisoned back in 2024 after he told a paedophile hunter – who he believed to be an 11-year-old girl – to call him Daddy, and asked her for sexual images.
During the police investigation, officers seized a Samsung tablet from him among other devices.
He was given a two-year, six month prison sentence and was released on May 1, 2025.
He moved from Wisbech to Rothwell.
In August 2025, the tablet was returned to him by police.
After his release he was under supervision by a MOSOVO officer, who conducted an initial visit to his home on November 27, 2025 and asked him to declare all his internet-enabled devices, in line with a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) imposed at his sentencing hearing.
He did declare nine devices, including a broken X-Box and a Playstation, but he did not declare the Samsung tablet.
During that visit, officers discussed in detail with him the terms of his SHPO.
Then on April 23, 2026, officers returned to his home in Jubilee Street, Rothwell, and noticed two charging cables plugged into the wall in his bedroom.
The court was told that Dempster became ‘very nervous’ and said that he didn’t know what the charging cable was for.
But the police officer opened a drawer and found inside it the Samsung tablet with a charging cable attached.
Prosecutor Sebastian Anderson told Northampton Crown Court: “The device was seized and when the officer asked him whether she’d find anything on it, he responded with a single word – ‘images’.
The court heard that Dempster was interviewed and initially tried to claim that he had told officers in Cambridgeshire about the device. Then he said he had thought about telling them but had forgotten.
Mr Anderson said: “There’s no medical evidence to support amnesia.”
But the following day he pleaded guilty at magistrates’ court to two breaches of his sexual harm prevention order. He was immediately recalled to prison to serve the remainder of his original sentence.
The court was told that the tablet had not yet been fully analysed by the force.
Mitigating, Dan Svoronos said that there was no evidence that the tablet had been used to look for illegal images.
Sentencing, His Honour Judge Rupert Mayo said: “There’s an element of deviousness in the offence, and deliberate lying.”
Giving him credit for his early guilty pleas, Judge Mayo gave him six months in prison, of which he will serve 40 per cent inside. He is due to be released from his recall sentence in August.
Back in 2020, Dempster, communicated with a decoy from an online predator hunter group on Kik Messenger and on WhatsApp. He believed her to be 11. In November that year he communicated with another decoy, this time pretending to be a 14-year-old girl.
He pleaded guilty to two counts of causing or inciting a girl under 16 to engage in sexual activity, and two of making indecent photos, in 2024. The delay in prosecuting him was not explained in court.