Man jailed after viewing child sex abuse on a train – London

A man who was spotted by a fellow passenger viewing indecent images of children on his phone has been jailed following a British Transport Police (BTP) investigation.

David Johnson, 35 and of Francis Chichester Way, Wandsworth, was sentenced to two years and three months imprisonment at Inner London Crown Court on Wednesday 1 April.

He had previously pleaded guilty to six counts of Making Indecent Images of Children, two counts of Attempting to Engage in Sexual Communication with a Child and Arranging or Facilitating the Commission of a Child Sex Offence.

Johnson was also handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO) for 10 years and must also sign the sex offender register for 10 years.

The court heard that at around midday on 23 September 2025, Johnson was travelling on a train from Stafford to London.

A member of the public was sat behind him, and he could see Johnson's mobile phone screen.

The man could see Johnson exchanging messages with someone before he opened a video showing a young child being abused. He then switched to another chat where a person asked him 'what kinds of videos do you like? I have all kinds'. Johnson replied, 'just kids videos'.

Stunned, the man messaged his own partner to say what was happening. When he looked back up, Johnson was watching another video showing an even younger child being abused.

The man was so shaken by what he had seen he got up to move to another part of the carriage before reporting Johnson using BTP's 61016 text service.

BTP officers rushed to meet the train at London Euston railway station, where Johnson was arrested on suspicion of possession of indecent images of children.

He was searched and officers seized his mobile phone – its screen wallpaper was an indecent image of a child.

When he was taken into custody, Johnson asked officers if he could have his property back as he “needed to delete some stuff”. He offered no comment to all questions put to him in interview.

Officers began searching two addresses linked to Johnson and seized a number of devices for examination. The phone seized at his arrest was found to contain nearly 200 indecent images of children, including 105 in category A – the most severe images.

As part of their enquiries detectives also recovered two chat transcripts, one of which showed he had been speaking to a girl he believed was 13 years old and had arranged to meet her for sex.

The other chat transcript was with an older woman and appeared to reference the same 13-year-old girl, but the woman had told Johnson that he could not see her as she was unwell. Johnson stated that he was on the train back to London – the journey in which the passenger saw his phone that ultimately led to his arrest.

Officers later established that the 13-year-old girl did not exist.

Johnson was released on bail while detectives collated evidence against him, and charges were authorised in December 2025.

BTP Detective Constable Victoria Lowth said: "The quick thinking and courage of the man who saw Johnson's phone meant that we were able to quickly arrest him and uncover the scale of his offending. I’d like to offer our sincerest thanks to that man, whose actions have directly led to Johnson's imprisonment.

“Behind every image and video Johnson owned is a vulnerable child that has been exploited and abused. He is clearly a danger to children and has rightly been handed substantial jail sentence, and stringent conditions have been put in place to prevent him from offending further.

“We will always do everything we can to make the railway a hostile place for criminals, and especially those whose offending targets children.”

Anyone who is the victim of, or witness to, an offence on the railway should report it by texting 61016.