Locations
Stepney Street, Swansea, Wales, SA5
Description
Primary School caretaker, caught in possession of two phones and up to 400 images of under age girls getting sexually abused.
Carl Short, who ran chat groups where he shared some images, initially claimed he had been acting as a paedophile hunter – something a judge described as “absurd”.
Dad-of-three Short, 36, was arrested in the grounds of Pennard Primary School in Swansea by officers from the South Wales Police online investigation team last July. They visited him after finding an indecent image of a child had been uploaded to a social networking website which linked back to his mobile phone number.
Swansea Crown Court heard when he was arrested Short told officers: “I don’t know what you’re talking about.” He was asked to hand over his mobile phone to officers and he gave them a Samsung model with a yellow case.
He then asked officers to allow him to lock up an interior office within the school but was told he would need to be escorted to do so. The court heard he did not volunteer a second mobile phone to officers – a black Samsung model which he had kept in his pocket.
On the way to Swansea Central police station Short was asked if he understood why he was being arrested and replied: “I have tried entrapping people.”
He also told officers: “I don’t understand what is happening here.”
The mobile phone which Short did not initially hand over was found to have a significant number of indecent images of children on it.
There was a total of 15 Category A images – the most serious type – along with 36 in Category B and 342 in Category C.
Further investigations found how 19 of the images had been distributed through messaging app Kik between May and June last year. Within the app he had created chat groups under the aliases Taz and The Real Duff Man. The groups had named such as ‘Candid teen’, ‘Schoolgirls’, and ‘Teen share’, each which had between 40 and 50 members.
In addition to evidence of distributing material there were several conversations with other members where by they would discuss age preference.
Cleaning software was also installed on Short’s mobile phone.
During his police interview Short, of Stepney Street in Cwmbwrla, Swansea, accepted he was admin of the groups and maintained that he had set them up with a view of trapping others.
He admitted three counts of possessing indecent images of children and three counts of distributing indecent images of children.
Mitigating, Vince Williams said: “Mr Short does now accept that he has a sexual interest in young girls. He became deeply immersed and that progressed into setting up Kik accounts and having conversations and image-sharing with others.
“There is a certain amount of naivete in accepting how serious these matters are and in particular to the distribution of these images.
“He set up chat accounts to feed his appetite. I have explained to him these are serious matters and now there is a realisation that this is a serious matter.
Sentencing Short, Recorder John Philpotts said: “On July 4 last year police officers arrested you at your workplace, which I’m concerned to know was a primary school.
“They did so because they were informed that an indecent image had been uploaded to Instagram and linked to you. You handed over one phone to police and you said it was your personal phone. You wanted to telephone your wife and needed to extract her number from what you said was your work phone and then it became clear it was really your personal phone.
“They found indecent images on this phone and there was a data cleaning programme. You were not naive – that’s why you had that on your phone.
“You told officers you were trying to entrap people. You have now sensibly abandoned what some would call an absurd account.”
Short was jailed for two years and made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order. He has been disqualified from working with children indefinitely.