Richard Hill 37

Description

A paedophile was caught with hundreds of pictures and films of children being abused including videos of boys being brutally sexually tortured and beaten, a court has heard. The discovery was made after members of the public raised concerns about Richard Hill acting "strangely" in popular parkland.

Sending 37-year-old Hill to prison, the judge said some of the films found on his phone showed the "prolonged sexual torture of little boys" and said it was because of people like him that there was a trade in making and distributing such material.

Gareth James, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court that on September 11 last year members of the public approached police officers in Abergavenny town centre and reported concerns about a male "acting strangely" in Castle Meadows. Officers went to the area and found Hill laying face down on a towel. When he was roused, the intoxicated defendant gave his name as Rick Hill and a check of police records showed he was a registered sex offender having previously been convicted at Hereford Crown Court.

The court heard that because of his record police seized his phone and checked it, and though they initially found no indecent images they did find concerning conversations on WhatsApp about underage sex. Hill explained the messages were "fantasy". However a subsequent forensic examination of the device found a total of 759 indecent pictures and videos of child abuse including 263 deemed Category A which show the most extreme kinds of sexual abuse such as rape.

The court heard details of one video of more than 12 minutes in length that showed a young boy in a "dirty outhouse" being bound with rope and stamped on while being sexually abused before he was waterboarded and urinated on. The man carrying out the abuse then gives the camera a thumbs up sign.

The full details of the video are too upsetting to be reported. The court heard the very experienced police forensic examiner who located and viewed the video on Hill's phone found its contents "very distressing", and dealing with the evidence in the case has had a "profound effect" on him.

Also on the defendant's phone were another 864 "indicative" images where it was not clear if the subjects were under the age of 18 along with a dozen prohibited images including very realistic computer generated images.

Richard Hill, of Willow Court, Abergavenny, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of indecent images of categories A, B and C and one count of possession of prohibited images when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has five previous convictions for seven offences including making and distributing indecent images from Hereford Crown Court in 2018, offending for which he was given a 16-month sentence and was made the subject of a sexual offences prevention order and was put on the sex offenders register for 10 years.

Ben Waters, for Hill, said the defendant was "appalled at his behaviour" and knows the court and the community will find it abhorrent. He said his client was a "young man dealing with issues from his past" and a pre-sentence report had identified that he wished to "amend the deficiencies in himself". The barrister invited the court to pass a suspended sentence that would allow work to be done to address the issues - he said such a sentence would not just be in the best interests of the defendant but also of the community.

Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke said some of the images found on Hill's phone showed "prolonged sexual torture of little boys", and she said the defendant had watched the brutal torture for his own sexual gratification. She said it was because of people like Hill that there was a trade in making and distributing such material.

With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas, Hill was sentenced to two years and four 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 was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the next 10 years, and will be a registered sex offender for the same period of time. Judge Lloyd-Clarke said even if the sentence had been one that was capable of being suspended - that is a sentence of two years or less - the offending was so serious she would not have suspended it.