Chris Williams (Image: South Wales Police)
Last Updated: 2 minutes ago
A man who downloaded photographs of a teenager from her mother’s Facebook page and sent them to a paedophile in the United States has been sentenced to more than two years in prison.
Chris Williams, 40, of Waun Wen, Cwmavon, Afan Valley, was jailed for 28 months at Swansea Crown Court after admitting six offences including distributing and possessing indecent images of children.
The arrest
Prosecutor Joseph Hocquard told the court that police attended Williams’ home on September 23 last year after receiving information that linked him to online offending.
His phone was seized and an initial examination revealed photographs of a teenage girl in school uniform. The images were not themselves indecent, but Williams was arrested.
What officers found
A full download of the device subsequently uncovered 103 indecent images of children. Of those, 41 were at the most serious Category A level, depicting extreme child sexual abuse and rape. Officers also recovered 81 extreme images showing bestiality.
Police were able to identify the teenager whose photographs had prompted the arrest and established that Williams had downloaded them from her mother’s Facebook page without her knowledge.
Chats with American contact
Examination of the phone also revealed extensive conversations on the Telegram messaging app between Williams – who used the name “Welsh Guy” – and a man called Ben, based in San Francisco.
The pair discussed in graphic detail the types of child sexual abuse they wanted to carry out, and exchanged indecent photographs of young girls they had taken. They also shared videos of themselves masturbating.
The court heard Williams went further, encouraging the American man to sexually abuse his own daughter while she was asleep. He advised the contact to give the child drugs to keep her asleep and said he would like to join in the abuse. Williams also sent the man the Facebook photographs of the teenager in her school uniform.
Mitigation
Andrew Evans, representing Williams, told the court that a pre-sentence report had been unable to recommend any alternative to immediate custody. He said it was hoped his client would engage with appropriate agencies to gain some insight into the reasons behind his offending.
The court heard Williams was concerned about the impact of his conviction on his children and his former partner.
Sentencing
Williams had pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images across Categories A, B, and C, distributing indecent images of Category A, taking indecent images of Category C, and possessing extreme images. He had no previous convictions.
Judge Huw Rees noted that Williams had denied having any sexual interest in children in his pre-sentence report.
“That is wholly false, and I reject it entirely,” the judge said.
He told Williams he had a “deeply unhealthy and degenerate” sexual interest in young children, and said his offending should be to his “undying shame”.
With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas, Williams was sentenced to 28 months in prison. He will serve half the sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for 10 years and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.
