Ellis Dismore spent hours contacting young girls on Snapchat and befriending them.
The paedophile IT graduate’s dad, who he lived with, thought his hardworking son was studying for his IT degree. And he was for some of the time, because Dismore, 24, achieved a first class honours from Teesside University after enrolling in a masters course in Applied Data Science.
He also though, spent hours online, hunting for underage girls.
There were three factors that the paedophile used to become effective at grooming and abusing his victims. Firstly, Dismore is bright. In court he was eloquent as he gave evidence from the witness box.
He repeatedly told the court that he did not intend to kill the victim when he stabbed her. He said he “wanted to harm her” because he was upset that she had blocked him online. Dismore knew he could not deny stabbing his victim – he was caught on camera – but he was tailoring his evidence in a bid to be convicted of a lesser crime. He wanted to avoid an attempted murder sentence.
He has the ability to work out what his victim’s vulnerabilities or insecurities were. He manipulated his victims – pretending to be their friend – until some of the young teenagers were dependent upon him for compliments and daily contact.
Dismore had time on his hands. He spent hours trawling Snapchat for young girls. He looked through the profiles of their friends and worked out who was where and when. He knew what schools the different girls went to, and he was abreast of fall-outs and disputes.
And Dismore was lonely. He craved company. He longed for a girlfriend – he has never had one by his own admission in court- and through his fantasy world of fake profiles, he got himself an “online girlfriend.” The relationship was not based on any reality.
Ellis Dismore
The victim thought she was seeing “James Wilson” – based on a fake profile using a photo of a teenage boy. In court Dismore admitted they had messaged and video-called “from when I woke up to 10pm everyday.” He had no friends and lots of time – which allowed him to oversee the minutiae of his girlfriend’s life.
Dismore’s intelligence, the copious amount of free time he had, and his utter isolation allowed his predatory, controlling paedophile tendencies to come to the fore. His whole life involved messaging, calling and manipulating underage girls.
He befriended them and complimented them. He set up more fake social media accounts to send them insults and threats and then he pretended to be their protector, when they felt upset. He groomed these young impressionable girls into sending explicit photos.
Once he had their photos, he wielded power over his victims – threatening to share the pictures or by threatening to harm their family members.
As he grew increasingly nasty, and tried to dictate which friends the victim saw, she decided to block “James” as a way of ending the relationship with the person she had never met in real life.
During his trial, the prosecution barrister Nick Dry accused Dismore of trying to “control, bully and estrange the teen from her friends.”
For all of his intelligence, Dismore was emotionally immature, and he could not control his anger when she ended the relationship. When she ignored his relentless messages, he threatened to rape her.
Listen to the shocking threat’s Dismore made here:
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He sent messages to the girl and her family – horrific voice notes – saying he would “put the knife straight in her heart.”
And on June 22, 2023, Dismore caught a bus into central Middlesbrough. He stopped to buy steak knives at Wilko’s and he waited for his former “girlfriend.” He pretended to be unwell, in a bid to get the girl’s sympathy.
She immediately recognised his voice as that of James’ – and she ran, realising her life was in danger. Dismore chased her down and stabbed her in the back and chest. A passing motorist heard the girl’s screams and stopped, telling her to get in.
The motorist’s dashcam recorded the attack. Even as the victim escaped, Dismore continued to try and stab her.
Watch dash cam footage showing Dismore chasing schoolgirl before stabbing:
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The sad, pitiful computer expert – with no friends and no life of his own – subjected nine children to abuse. He sent some of them explicit images of himself. He pressured them to send him explicit images of themselves and asked for sex.
He threatened to stab one girl’s family member. He told another victim he would let her parents know she was gay.
Dashcam footage of Dismore chasing his victim
The case has prompted the NSPCC to speak out about online safety for children. Rani Govender, a policy manager for the NSPCC, said that the fact that Dismore “was able to create a teenage profile on social media sites to target girls, highlights once again why tech companies must be compelled to make their platforms safe by design for all their young users.”
Speaking to Teesside Live, Detective Sergeant Andrew Hamilton from Cleveland Police, said that Dismore was only uncovered as a prolific sex offender after the stabbing: “We began to examine his computers and digital devices. Over a seven year period he’d been contacting a number of children over the whole country. We made contact with these kids trying to work out whether or not he’d groomed and exploited them in the same way. We interviewed over 100 children from as far north as Glasgow to as far south as Cornwall.”
DS Hamilton said that the victims had been “really, really brave” in coming to court and that the whole process had been incredibly daunting for them: “I have to commend their courage in coming to court today and being able to give evidence. Ultimately it’s down to them that we’re able to get this 43 year sentence.”
Dismore will serve two-thirds of the 38-year custodial portion of his sentence, before he can be considered for release. And when he is out, his internet use will be strictly controlled by the terms of his sexual harm prevention order.
If he is caught setting up fake profile or talking to children online – he will be recalled back to prison.
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