Description
A man shared images of children being sexually abused with "like minded people" during the Covid lockdowns. Leigh Davies also engaged in sexual conversations about children with contacts on the Kik messenger app. Swansea Crown Court heard that some of the indecent images which the 66-year-old defendant collected showed young girls who were clearly "in pain and distress".
Craig Jones, prosecuting, said on November 24, 2021, police officers executed a search warrant at the defendant's home address in Port Talbot in relation to an investigation into the possession and distribution of indecent images. The court heard a significant number of electronic devices were seized, and Davies said to the officers: "I'm on Kik and Snapchat and get sent all sorts of stuff".
The prosecutor said a forensic examination of the devices found 244 indecent images on an iPhone, including 166 of Category A showing the most extreme kind of sexual abuse. A number of the Category A images showed young females who were clearly "in pain and distress". Officers also found Davies had shared 20 images with people on the Kik messenger application and engaged in sexual conversations with contacts, while an examination of his internet history showed he had been making searches using the term "young boys". The court heard the ages of the children shown in the child abuse photographs ranged from around three to early teens. More than 220 images of extreme pornography were also found.
Mr Jones said it should be noted that a total of 1,214 illegal media files related to the Kik application were not visible during a manual examination of the iPhone, indicating that either the individual images or entire chat threads had been deleted.
Leigh Davies, of Fenbrook Close, Baglan, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to possession of indecent images of Categories A, B, and C, distributing indecent images of Categories A, B, and C, and possession of extreme pornography when he appeared in the dock for for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.
Giles Hayes, for Davies, said though the defendant had been married for a long time he was "emotionally separate" from his wife, and he said his "coping mechanism" had been viewing pornography which had "foolishly" developed into looking at images which were unlawful. The advocate said Davies had always been a hard-working family man, and the offending took place during the Covid lockdown when his client was concerned about his job. He added that there was a reference before the court from the church which the defendant had attended for "many, many years", though he said that since his arrest his client had withdrawn from attending the place of worship.
Judge Catherine Richards said the defendant's offending lasted for a period of some 16 months and included distributing images of child sexual abuse as well as engaging in sexual conversations with "like minded people". With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Davies was sentenced to 26 months in prison - he will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The defendant will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years, and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order to manage his access to the internet for the same length of time.