Paedophile swapped vile abuse images on Snapchat

A PAEDOPHILE who collected hundreds of photos and videos of children being sexually abused was in contact with “like-minded individuals” on Snapchat, a court has heard.

Swansea Crown Court heard police found more than 800 indecent images on Maximillian Gilford’s electronic devices but that number was likely a “significant underestimate” of the true amount he had as officers did not count and categorise the large number of images he had stored in an online cloud account.

Paul Hobson, prosecuting, said police executed a search warrant at Gilford’s house in August last year and seized a number of electronic devices including a Samsung phone and a computer hard drive.

Linked to the phone was a Mega cloud storage account. An examination of the devices found 815 images including 277 Category A videos showing the most extreme kinds of sexual abuse.

Mr Hobson said the total of 815 was probably a “significant underestimate” of the true total as, in line with police procedures, officers did not count or categorise all the “large number” of images which were stored online and which had been catalogued and put into separate files by Gilford.

The prosecutor said police also found evidence 36-year-old Gilford had been discussing and sharing images with “like-minded individuals” on Snapchat.

Maximillian Douglas Gilford, of Richmond Street, Neath, admitted three counts of making – that is possessing – indecent images of children of Categories A, B, and C when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.

Amelia Pike, for Gilford, said the defendant was “deeply ashamed of his actions” and had been struggling with being alone during the Covid pandemic. She said the warehouse worker was now seeking help from various charities to address the issues in his life.

Judge Paul Thomas QC said the pictures and videos Gilford downloaded were “nothing short of stomach-churning”.

He told the defendant that people like him needed to realise they were not just images on a screen but were real children somewhere in the world being raped, abused, tortured and having their lives ruined so people like him can masturbate over them.

The judge said the appropriate sentence on the guidelines was 18 months in prison which was reduced to 12 months with the guilty pleas.

Given that was less than two years he was required to consider whether the sentence could be suspended. He said given everything he had read about Gilford including his mental health issues, his work, testimonials from family members, and his engagement with charities designed to address the issues in his life he was persuaded there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation.

Gilford was sentenced to 12 months in prison suspended for 18 months and must complete a Horizon sex offenders course and pay a £1,000 fine.