Man with child abuse pictures ‘was curious’
A MAN found with thousands of child abuse photos on his phone claims he only looked at them because he was “curious”, a court has heard.
Some of the material found on David Glyndwr Taylor’s mobile featured images of children as young as four being raped.
There were more than 32,000 files on his phone – but police have only examined and categorised around 1% of them.
Swansea Crown Court heard that police, acting on intelligence, raided Taylor’s home last month.
Helen Randall, prosecuting, said the 26-year-old initially gave officers the wrong pass code for his phone, meaning they could not access the device. When they were given the right code they found a large number of apps installed on the phone, and more than 32,000 files.
The prosecutor said that of the “vast quantity” of pictures and films, police only looked at some 2,901 files – and only categorised 224 of those.
Of the images the officers categorised 86 were deemed to be category A – the most extreme kind – with 62 in category B, and 76 in category C.
Among the category A images were ones showing the rape of children aged around four or five.
Miss Randall said Taylor had also shared an unknown quantity of images by uploading them to the picture sharing website Tumblr.
Taylor, of Rhondda Street, Mount Pleasant, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images and three counts of distributing indecent images when he appeared via videolink from prison for sentencing.
The court heard he has no previous convictions.
Jenny Yeo, for Taylor, said the defendant maintained he had no sexual interest in the images, and was driven by “curiosity rather than sexual gratification”.
She said: “In retrospect he says he hates himself and is full of regret. He says he wants nothing to do with the internet, and will not be downloading any applications.”
Judge Paul Thomas QC said he rejected the defendant’s claim to be “curious”, and would sentence him on the basis that he got “sexual kicks” from viewing the material.
He told the defendant: “The images police found on your phone were stomach churning – some of them involve the rape, humiliation and distress of children of ages four, or five, or six. These are real children being abused so films and photographs can be distributed, so paedophiles like you can get their kicks from it.”
He added that he presumed Taylor had not told his partner about what was on his phone.
The judge sentenced him to a total of two years in prison – two years for each of the three distribution charges, one year for possessing the category A images and six months for each of the category B and C possession charges, all sentences to run concurrently. The defendant will serve half that period in custody before being released on licence.
Taylor was also made the subject of sexual harm prevention order to limit his access to children and to the internet for the next 10 years, and must sign the sex offenders register for the same length of time.