Phillip Hill 55

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A nurse at one of Wales' biggest hospitals took pictures of his penis while at work and sent them to what he thought was a 13-year-old girl, a court has heard.

Phillip Hill had spent the previous couple of days sending highly sexual and explicit messages to the contact, and had made repeated requests for intimate images of her. In reality, the 54-year-old had been chatting to a so-called paedophile hunter, and members of the vigilante group confronted him in the car park outside Morriston Hospital at the end of a shift.

A subsequent search of the anaesthetic technician's computer uncovered hundreds of images of people having sex with horses and dogs, and searches for terms including "incest", "dead" and "Down's" in pornographic websites. Sending the defendant to prison, a judge said that, while Hall had been living an outwardly respectable life with a responsible job - which included providing anaesthetic care during children's surgery - it was clear he had "extremely deviant" sexual interests.

Ashanti-Jade Walton, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that in January this year Hill engaged in highly sexual communications with a Facebook profile purporting to be that of a 13-year-old girl. She said the defendant initiated contact with the profile and "immediately" turned the conversation to sexual matters, asking the girl about masturbation, and sending her pictures of his penis. The barrister said the account the defendant was in contact with was actually being run by a vigilante paedophile hunter group.

The court heard the conversation moved to the GoogleChat app and there Hill made further repeated requests for topless and other intimate pictures of what he believed to be a young girl, and when she said she had never done anything like that he told her to "be brave" and said "just one photo then all done". He also talked about masturbation, and sent the girl videos of himself performing the act. During the conversations the defendant disclosed to the decoy that he was an anaesthetic technician in a hospital.

The court heard that on January 26 Hill sent the defendant further pictures of his penis - some of them taken while he wearing surgical scrubs and apparently in a changing room - and engaged in further sexual conversations. That evening, as he left work, the defendant was confronted in the car park of Morriston Hospital by members of a paedophile hunter group who then called the police. The court heard Hill had sent the decoy the last of the pictures of his penis just 20 minutes before he had left work.

Hill was arrested and gave a "no comment" interview before being released while police examined a number of electronic devices. On a Lenovo tablet device police found 288 images of extreme pornography showing adults having sex with horses and dogs - some with creation dates stretching back 10 years - and also uncovered his internet search history which included searches on pornographic sites for topics including "incest", "dead" and "Down's".

Phillip Hill, of Swansea Road, Pontlliw, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to attempted sexual communications with a child, attempting to incite a child to engage in sexual activity, attempting to cause a child to watch a sexual act, and possession of extreme pornography when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.

Andrew Evans, for Hill, said it was clear from the pre-sentence report that the defendant himself had been trying to answer the question that no doubt the court would be asking - why did a family man leading a seemingly normal life with an extremely responsible job and no previous convictions act in the way he did? The advocate said it may be that there were "no easy answers" to that question. Mr Evans invited the court to consider passing a sentence which would allow the probation service to work with the defendant in addressing and tackling his "perverse interests".

Judge Paul Thomas KC said the appropriate sentence after trial on the guidelines for the communications offences was one of three years in prison - with the required one-third discount for the guilty pleas that was reduced to two years. Hill was also sentenced to three months for the extreme pornography offence to run consecutively making an overall sentence of two years and three months in prison. The defendant will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. Hill will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years, and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same length of time.

Speaking after the sentencing, Swansea Bay University Health Board said it had been "shocked and horrified" to learn of Hill's offending, and said it wanted to assure people that there was no evidence that the offending had related to patients

A spokesman said: "We are shocked and horrified by the nature of these appalling offences. As soon as the health board was made aware of Mr Hill’s arrest our internal HR and safeguarding processes were activated. He was immediately removed from duty and has not worked for us since.

"No prior concerns had been raised about Mr Hill, and we can give assurances that no evidence has been found indicating that his offences related to any patients."

South Wales Police welcomed the sentencing of the defendant, with detective inspector Carl Price saying his behaviour had demonstrated a clear risk to children. He said: "I welcome Phillip Hill’s sentencing today. He showed clear sexual intent towards children. His behaviour clearly demonstrates a risk to children, and it is quite right that he has been given a custodial sentence for his actions. We will continue in our commitment to bring offenders like Phillip Hill to justice."

Meanwhile, the Crown Prosecution Service Cymru said that while no actual child was at risk in Hill's offending, the case was a stark reminder of the dangers children could face online.