Met Police officer took condoms to meet '13-year-old girl', jury told

Suspended Metropolitan Police officer Det Con Francois Olwage denies all charges against him

A Met Police officer packed a bag full of items to have sex with a girl he thought was 13 years old, a court has heard.

Det Con Francois Olwage, 52, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, allegedly spoke to the "girl" for two weeks before trying to meet, Winchester Crown Court heard.

The court heard the girl was in fact an undercover police officer.

Mr Olwage, a counter-terrorism officer, denies a number of child sex offences.

Mr Olwage was suspended from his job after he was arrested.

The court heard Mr Olwage had started explicit sexual conversations with the "girl" in October 2021 before suggesting they meet in what she said was her hometown of Basingstoke, Hampshire.

Prosecutor Peter Shaw said Mr Olwage had travelled by train to meet the girl, who went by the username Smile Bear, in a park after stopping at a McDonald's restaurant.

He said the defendant was arrested in the fast food restaurant by two undercover police officers.

'Intellectual interest'

When officers searched his bag they found condoms, a bottle of lubricant and a packet of erectile dysfunction tablets, the jury heard.

He also had a box of chocolates which Mr Shaw suggested was a present for the girl he thought he was meeting.

The court heard Mr Olwage did not answer questions when interviewed by police but gave a statement saying "he never believed" he was talking to a 13-year-old girl.

Mr Shaw said instead the defendant claimed he "believed it was an adult female living out a fantasy as a 13-year-old."

Mr Olwage found the fantasy "of intellectual interest" and decided to "play along", the court heard.

The defendant "denied having a sexual interest in children and denied the meeting would involve sexual activity," Mr Shaw said.

A message from the defendant to the girl the day before the meeting said: "We can't meet tomorrow for anything sexual so it can only be about us meeting to chat and spending time together."

Giving evidence to the trial, the undercover officer who posed as Smile Bear, who can only be identified as Max, said he had stated the girl was aged 13 and the defendant had replied: "Are you OK chatting with me, I could be your dad?"

Mr Olwage denies engaging in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause or incite a girl aged 13 to engage in sexual activity, arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence and meeting a girl under the age of 16 following grooming.

The trial continues.