Convicted sex offender David Cheneler picked up a six year old girl from school, hiding his past until facial recognition exposed him

Shock and fury have gripped the Lewisham community after it emerged that a convicted sex offender managed to collect a six-year-old girl from her school, deceiving her mother and concealing a disturbing criminal past.

David Cheneler, 73, was able to dupe the girl’s unsuspecting mother by posing as a helpful pensioner and offering to collect the child as a favour. What she didn’t know—and what would send shivers down any parent’s spine—is that Cheneler had previously served nine years in prison for a string of horrifying sexual offences against children.

The horrifying discovery came not through a tip-off or a background check, but via cutting-edge police technology. As Cheneler strolled through Denmark Hill with the little girl by his side, live facial recognition cameras operated by the Metropolitan Police flagged him. Officers quickly intervened—and in a chilling twist—found a lock knife concealed in his belt.

Far from a grandfatherly helper, Cheneler turned out to be a wolf in sheep’s clothing. Already subject to a Sexual Offences Prevention Order (SOPO), he was barred from any unsupervised contact with children under 14. But that didn’t stop him from infiltrating the family’s trust and flouting the restrictions meant to protect children from predators like him.

He was swiftly brought before Wimbledon Magistrates’ Court, where he admitted to breaching his SOPO and carrying an offensive weapon. Sentencing him at Kingston Crown Court, the judge made no bones about the severity of his violations, handing Cheneler a two-year prison sentence and condemning his actions as utterly reprehensible.

Detective Constable Adam Pearce, who led the investigation, said the technology that flagged Cheneler played a critical role in protecting the girl. “Without the real-time alerts, we might never have known he was out there, walking freely with a child he should never have been near,” he said.

The mother of the six-year-old, still reeling from the revelation, had no idea of Cheneler’s past. Her trust, she now knows, was deeply misplaced—and the case raises serious concerns about the ability of offenders to manipulate their way into families’ lives undetected.

“How many other parents,” one local resident asked, “could unknowingly be handing their children over to predators?”

Lindsey Chiswick, who leads the Metropolitan Police’s Live Facial Recognition initiative, underscored the importance of the technology in modern policing. “This isn’t just about catching criminals already on the run,” she said. “It’s about safeguarding the vulnerable and ensuring that people like Cheneler are never given another chance to harm.”

The use of facial recognition technology remains a subject of public debate, but this case is likely to be seized upon by advocates as a powerful example of its life-saving potential. For Lewisham parents, however, the incident has cast a long shadow—one that will take time and trust to overcome.

As the community processes the shock, urgent questions are now being asked: How was this allowed to happen? What vetting processes failed? And above all, how can families ever be certain that those they trust with their children are truly safe?

One thing is clear: without the intervention of live facial recognition, David Cheneler might still be walking among the innocent—masking his wicked past behind a kindly face