Lewis James Taylor, 31, appeared at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday, July 2 where he pleaded guilty to intentionally touching a child sexually under the age of 13, taking indecent images of a child, distributing indecent images of a child and possessing extreme pornographic images.

The court was told the child was sexually abused in April this year.

Matthew Cobbe, prosecuting, said the defendant, from Ely, Cardiff, exchanged messages with a “like minded paedophile” on messenger service Kik where he discussed the abuse he intended to carry out.

He told the court: “He discusses the sexual abuse of the child. This was a particularly vulnerable child. He was taking them (the images) and distributing them.”

Mr Cobbe said images shared with the other person showed the “genital area” and “a male ejaculating”.

The court was told the defendant later exchanged messages with another chat user who asked him when he was going to abuse again and the defendant replied “soon.”

Police officers in London discovered some of the content that was being sent to one of the message service users in London, which then led them to Taylor.

South Wales Police later visited Taylor’s home where he initially said “I haven’t done anything”. The messages were later discovered along with 12 images involving bestiality. A video was also found to have recorded some of the abuse.

Her Honour Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke described the case as being “particularly distressing”. She told the defendant: “It’s said on your behalf you are really remorseful for your conduct, but I have grave doubts about that. You’re shown to have a strong sexual interest in very young children and are a huge risk to children.”

Taylor was handed a concurrent prison sentence of six years and nine months, with an extended licence period of four years.

June 2021

Woman who arranged for paedophile boyfriend to abuse toddler is jailed

A woman has been jailed for seven-and-a-half years after helping her paedophile lover find a toddler to sexually abuse.

Shannan Vicary, 25, secretly plotted for the couple to be alone with the little girl so her older boyfriend could carry out his attacks.

She was ‘anxious to assist’ Michael Colmer and ‘encouraged’ him in a series of WhatsApp messages, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Her 46-year-old boyfriend filmed two attacks on his iPad and was only caught after police found he accessed child pornography sites on his computer.

Prosecutor Matthew Cobbe said Vicary ‘facilitated’ Colmer and told how there were messages between the couple ‘in which they were eagerly anticipating the opportunity to abuse the child’.

The court heard of the conversation began with commentary on children in school uniforms, which became sexual.

Colmer, from Newport, South Wales, then sent Vicary a picture of his penis and made references to what they were going to do the next day.

His home was raided by police after National Crime Agency discovered an email address at the address had accessed indecent images.

Colmer told officers: ‘You’ll find them on my phone and on my iPad.’

The court heard how he had more than 600 abuse images of children on his devices including many under the age of 18 months.

In a statement the girl’s mum said: ‘What has happened has significantly affected me.

‘I feel like a bad parent because I did not know what was going on and could not protect my daughter.

‘I do not understand why these persons did what they did to my daughter. I hope they are never in a position to do this to anyone else. This has devastated me and my family.’

Colmer admitted sexual assault, inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and taking an indecent photograph of a child and making indecent images of children.

Vicary, also from Newport, admitted arranging or facilitating the commission of a child sex offence.

Judge David Wynn Morgan told Vicary: ‘You may not have been interested in young children you have, however, clearly assisted Colmer in the gratification of his sexual desires.’

Colmer had been jailed for 17 years and four months at an earlier hearing where he was told he was a ‘truly despicable human being’.

Judge Morgan told him: ‘This case reveals behaviour by both you and Vicary of an almost unimaginable level of depravity.

‘No one can assess the level of damage done to your victim but the level of harm inflicted on her mother is enormous. You pose a considerable risk of danger to young children.’

June 2021

‘Devious’ sex offender caught with secret phone and pictures of children

An online sex offender was caught with a smartphone and software designed to hide his internet history, a court has heard.

Craig Lloyd was handed a suspended prison sentence in 2019 for attempting to incite what he thought was a 12-year-old to engage in sexual activity.

As part of his sentence he was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order to control his access to the internet including a requirement he must declare any phones he owed to the police.

Hannah George, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that in May this year police officers monitoring the defendant in the community made an unannounced visit to his home.

The officers quizzed him about any electronic devices he had and he admitted he had a Samsung phone which he had bought the previous year and which he had not notified them about. Police carried out a search and also recovered a USB memory stick.

Lloyd was arrested and cautioned and told officers “there might be some stuff” on the phone as he had been involved in online chats.

An examination of the Samsung found it had software which deleted the internet search history and it also had pictures of children – albeit images of fully clothed youngsters and not indecent images.

In his interview the 37-year-old admitted buying the phone from eBay the previous October and not declaring it and said he used it look at pornography.

Craig Anthony Lloyd, of Neath Road, Hafod, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) when he appeared in the dock via videolink from prison for sentencing.

In 2019 he was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for 24 months for attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to incite a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity. This case involved decoy social media accounts rather than real girls.

Matt Murphy, for Lloyd, said the offence was one “born out of temptation” but that Lloyd hadn’t been using the phone “to engage in communications with people he should not”. The advocate said the defendant had been working with probation while on the suspended sentence but “further intervention” was required.

Judge Geraint Walters told Lloyd he had been fortunate to avoid immediate prison in 2019 and had he been sentenced under the current Court of Appeal authority he would not have received a suspended sentence, which he said was the defendant’s “lucky break”.

However having been given a chance the judge said the defendant went on to commit a “wilful and flagrant” breach of the sexual harm prevention order, which showed “a measure of deviousness” on Lloyd’s part. He said it was clear the defendant had learned nothing.

Giving Lloyd the required one-third discount for his guilty plea the judge sentenced him to 12 months in prison for the breach and he activated eight months of the previously-imposed suspended sentence to run consecutively making an overall sentence of 20 months in prison.

Lloyd will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence.

The sexual harm prevention order remains in place.

April 2021

University graduate downloaded 8,000 images of child sexual abuse

A university graduate was caught with thousands of images of child sexual abuse on his phone, a court has heard.

Police found more than 8,000 indecent images on a mobile and on computer hard drives including 985 of the most extreme kind.

Georgina Buckley, prosecuting at Swansea Crown Court, said the images came to light after police executed a search warrant at Craig Lee Roberts’ Swansea home in April last year. Present at the Brynhyfryd address were the defendant, his partner – now his ex-partner – and members of his family.

The court heard that officers found Roberts in his bedroom and when they told him why they were there he said they would find what they were looking for on his phone.

A phone and two computer hard drives were seized and when they were examined a total of 8,148 indecent images were found including 985 Category A images which show the most extreme kinds of sexual abuse and rape. A check of 29-year-old Roberts’ internet history showed he had actively searched for such material.

The prosecutor said the defendant largely gave “no comment” replies to questions in his first police interview but in his second interview – conducted after his devices had been examined – he gave officers a prepared statement in which he said he had sought help for his internet use immediately after his arrest.

Roberts, now of Trawler Road, Swansea Marina, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images of categories A, B, and C when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.

Judge Paul Thomas QC told Roberts that no decent person could view the images he had downloaded and feel anything other than disgust and revulsion – yet he had derived sexual pleasure from them.

He told the defendant that because of people like him children somewhere in the world were being sexual abused in a way that would have life-long effects. The judge said: “People like you fuel this evil trade.”

Judge Thomas said following the guidelines and allowing for the required one-third discount for his guilty pleas the appropriate sentence was one of 16 months in prison – the only question for the court was whether that sentence had to be served immediately.

He said given the efforts Roberts had already made in addressing his behaviour there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in his case and therefore the sentence could be suspended.

Roberts was sentenced to 16 months in prison suspended for two years and must complete a community sex offenders course and a rehabilitation course and do 150 hours of unpaid work.

He will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order to control his access to the internet for the same length of time.