May 2020

Welsh League Footballer blackmailed schoolboy for indecent images while posing as girl on Instagram

A footballer set up a fake Instagram account and blackmailed a 11 year old schoolboy for indecent images while pretending to be a young girl.

Corey Christopher Hycz blackmailed the boy from September 2016 to May 2019 by threatening to share indecent pictures of him online if he didn’t send more.

The 21-year-old, who plays for Ruthin Town FC, was also targeting other schoolchildren in North Wales, Mold Crown Court heard today.

In a hearing held by video link before Judge Niclas Parry, Hycz, of Min yr Afon in Ruthin, was sentenced to two years and three months behind bars and was made the subject of a 10-year Sexual Harm Prevention Order.

He must also register as a sex offender for 10 years.

Hycz admitted all four offences including two counts of causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, blackmail and making indecent images of children.

Prosecutor Ffion Tomos said the boy was initially targeted by Hycz in 2016.

The victim had received a message from an Instagram account under a false name, who claimed to be a pupil at a school in North Wales.

Using the false account, Hycz asked the boy if he wanted to be friends, and told him that he thought he was attractive.

The court heard that, as the conversation continued, he asked whether the boy was post-pubescent.

When he replied that he did not know, Hycz told him to send some images and videos of his genitals to see whether he was.

Once the images had been sent, the court heard Hycz continued to ask for further material from the boy.

When his victim did not comply, Hycz began to blackmail him.

Ms Tomos said that, when the boy blocked the account, another was created and warned that if he did not unblock the first account, the images would be shared with “everyone”.

It wasn’t until the boy confided in a friend some years later that he eventually told his brother about the ordeal, and later contacted the police.

Following Hycz’s arrest on June 4 last year, police discovered a number of indecent images of children on his phone and laptop, mainly male children from the age of three to 14, and including almost 40 images of the most serious category.

It also emerged he was part of abusive conversations about the sexual abuse of children, and had been searching information about high schools in North Wales to target other schoolchildren, the court heard.

In a victim impact statement read out by Ms Tomos to the court, the boy said that, since the incident, he “can’t laugh as he did before” and was always upset at home.

He said he feared he would be mocked if people found out what had happened, and that his friends would abandon him.

“When I was first contacted by the person, I thought they just wanted to be friends,” he said.

“I was worried about going out and, at the time, I was worried about who it was.”

As a result of the ordeal, he said he had lost sleep, became stressed, and said his school work had been affected.

Judge Parry said the defendant, who admitted he is sexually attracted to children and had “carefully planned” the incident, was at high risk of reoffending.

He said he will serve half of the sentence in custody, and the other half on license.

December 2019

Former council official led a secret life stockpiling sexual images of children

A former council official who led a secret life stockpiling sexual images of children and covertly filming women and young girls changing has been jailed.

John Cameron, 34, from Denbigh, Wales, an ex-compliance and contracts manager with Denbighshire County Council, was jailed for 16 months today.

Police raided his home in the summer and found thousands of indecent images and movies, including ones of a young girl who had been sexually abused and drugged.

Cameron admitted in court that he got sexual gratification from looking at images of child sex abuse, adding that he was seeking help.

Children involved in the images which had been downloaded were as young as five and one child aged about six was unconscious, apparently drugged.

He said he had a strong desire to look at images of child pornography and was ‘unable to control it’.

Mold Crown Court also heard how he covertly made his own movies of unsuspecting women – taken at a swimming pool at a holiday camp, and under the doors of changing rooms.

He set up spy cameras in other places and secretly filmed a teenage girl showering.

As well as the jail sentence, Cameron was given a ten year sexual harm prevention order and ordered to register as a sex offender for ten years.

He was also given an indefinite restraining order and cannot contact some of his victims.

Judge Nicolas Parry told him the case ‘was awash with aggravating features’.

Over a period of 14 years Cameron had gathered images of child sex abuse for his own sexual gratification.

This unusually long period of offending was a ‘seriously aggravating feature’, together with the large number of images and videos found, the judge said.

Police raided his home in the summer and found thousands of indecent images and movies, including ones of a young girl who had been sexually abused and drugged
The defendant made his own covert movies and would film people in public toilets, in changing rooms, and would follow women and children into shops filming them.

He filmed people going about their daily lives, invading their privacy.

In mitigation, Judge Parry cited his early guilty pleas and immediate remorse.

Cameron had no previous convictions, the judge said, was a hard working and highly regarded employee who as a result of his offending had lost his employment.

Judge Parry also highlighted how Cameron had taken voluntary steps to address his problems and had completed a ‘Safer Lives’ programme and was registered to follow a course with The Lucy Faithful Foundation.

Prosecuting barrister Jade Tufael told how the defendant had previously at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court admitted six charges of voyeurism together with offences of downloading indecent images of children, and possessing extreme images.

Shortly after 7am on August 22 this year police executed a search warrant at his then Denbigh home, computer and phone equipment was seized together with a box containing a spike end camera.

Police found 194 videos and images at the most serious category A, 135 at category B and 2,352 at category C – together with 91 extreme images.

Mainly the files had been deleted and software had been used to hide the history of internet use. But there had been systematic searches for indecent images of children, the prosecutor said.

An app on his phone appeared to show the screen was off when the camera was running.

Cameron accepted that he had taken images of members of the public and he had searched the internet about the use of spy cameras.

Miss Tufael said that a total of 14, 285 still and movie images had not been categorised.

Films were found of naked females changing – taken from under changing room doors – and drying.

They had been taken during a family holiday at Flamingo Land in Yorkshire.

Other images were found which had been taken covertly in shops or supermarkets and he had set up a secret camera to film a teenage girl showering without her knowledge.

Interviewed a second time he accepted responsibility and said he obtained gratification from what he had done.

Miss Tufael said that there had clearly been a significant degree of planning.

November 2020

Child rapist who inflicted ‘terror and pain’ on his victims jailed for 34 years

A child rapist who abused two girls in a terrifying campaign spanning over two decades has today been jailed for 34 years.

David Charles Holland, 56, of Prestatyn, had tried to adopt a child aged five or over and is still a danger to the public, Mold Crown Court heard.

Last month, he was found guilty of 20 charges described as some of the “most chilling and serious cases” a judge had ever heard.

They included eight counts of rape, one sexual assault, seven indecent assaults, indecency with a child, encouraging a child to engage in sexual activity, making a threat to kill and distributing indecent images of a child.

The girls, who cannot be identified, were both under the age of seven when the abuse started.

Today, Judge Niclas Parry said Holland, who appeared via video link from HMP Berwyn in Wrexham, had caused his older victim “terror and pain and gratuitous degradation”.

The court heard that Holland had started abusing the first victim in the mid 1990s for around 10 years, then the second girl some years later.

He was arrested in May 2019 when the second girl reported the abuse to her father.

Prosecutor Anna Pope today insisted that Holland remains a danger to the public.

She said Holland poses “a clear and significant risk to children to which his attitude is one of contempt.”

He had registered with one adoption agency and prepared an application for another to try to adopt a child over five.

She also pointed out that Holland had once rented a house which remained largely empty but with encrypted images of children on “thumb drives” hidden in a hollow compartment of a hoover and in a small plastic bag in the gas meter cupboard.

Ms Pope said his older victim is still affected.

She says this victim is “paranoid” that she will meet Holland on walks and has reverted to childhood fears and anxieties.

She quoted the victim as saying: “I worry that one day he will be free and come to find me and my family for revenge.”

Jailing Holland for the extended sentence, Judge Parry said he had shown a “chilling lack of empathy.”

The judge said he had got the older girl to swear on a Bible or warning her she would “die and go to Hell” if she reported him.

He also held a knife to her throat saying her blood would “drain in four minutes” if he cut her.

He further sent a photo of a burning toy doll.

He imposed a restraining order banning Holland indefinitely from direct or indirect contact with his victims.

Holland must serve at least 19 years and four months before being eligible for parole.

November 2019

Wales child rapist after judge lifts id banning order

An order banning the public identification of a North Wales sex offender has been lifted by a judge.

July 2019

‘If you find anything, it’s not me’ pensioner told computer shop worker

A pensioner who took two laptops to a computer repair shop at Prestatyn told a woman assistant: “If you find anything, it’s not me,” a court heard on Tuesday.

Caernarfon crown court was told the shopworker had been concerned and when one laptop was fixed she checked the history.

Prosecuting barrister Ffion Tomos said search terms and visited websites indicated 77-year-old Ian May’s unhealthy interest.

May, of Steven Road, Prestatyn, pleaded guilty to making indecent images of children, and possessing a prohibited image and extreme porn.

Judge Huw Rees imposed an eight months suspended jail term with a rehabilitation activity and 150 hours unpaid work. May must also register as a sex offender for ten years and a sexual harm prevention order was made. He has to pay £425 costs.

The judge said May was a candidate for intervention by the probation service. He told the defendant: “Showing any interest in such images creates a demand for further abuse of children to take place.”

He said May had 16 images in the worst category of seriousness. There were 21 other child porn images.

The prosecutor said the shopworker had alerted police and May was arrested in October 2018.

“He said he would gamble online for 24 hours a day and while he was putting bets on the horses he saw advertising pictures on the side of the screen which led him to access the indecent images of children,” Miss Tomos explained.

“He denied having a sexual interest in children. He saw the purpose of visiting these sites as a means of passing the time. He said it was a difficult period in his life and he had been under a lot of pressure.”

Defence barrister Simon Killeen said May had an “exemplary” character for 77 years. The sexual harm prevention order wasn’t contested.