Llanelli man jailed for sending explicit video to ‘child’

A Llanelli man who sent a sexually explicit video to who he believed was a 12-year-old girl has been jailed after it emerged his online target was actually an undercover police officer.

Craig Evans, 47, started chatting with the decoy account on messaging app Kik in October last year. Despite being told straight away that the “girl” was only 12 years old, the defendant pressed on with his disturbing messages.

Cardiff Crown Court heard Evans asked whether she had a boyfriend and if she had done “naked stuff”. The conversation quickly escalated when he told the decoy he was “horny and hard” and requested photographs.

After the decoy sent a selfie-style image, Evans responded: “Stunning, how about naked?” He then sent pictures of himself and his dog before revealing he was “sitting on the bed naked and watching pornography”.

The Dolau Fawr resident asked if she had “seen a penis before” and then sent a video of himself masturbating. Following this, he instructed the child to delete the video.

Police arrived at Evans’ home on 31st October. When officers entered, he asked why they were there before being arrested.

During his interview, Evans claimed he didn’t believe the decoy was a real girl due to Kik’s age verification systems and insisted he thought he was “role playing”. He also suggested he believed it was a decoy or vigilante group and said he’d been asking questions to “catch them out”.

The court was told Evans has a previous conviction for sending a photograph of his genitals to an elderly woman to cause alarm, distress and humiliation.

Defence barrister David Singh argued the interaction was “limited” and there had been a gap in his client’s offending behaviour. He added that Evans’ mental health had deteriorated and he hadn’t received any mental health appointments until being remanded in custody.

Evans pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child and attempting to cause a child under 13 to watch or look at an image of sexual activity.

Passing sentence, Judge Paul Hobson said there was “warped thinking” on the defendant’s part in relation to his sexual behaviour.

Evans was jailed for 70 weeks and made subject to sex offender notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years.