Scientist caught in child sex sting given suspended sentence

A scientist who had sexualised online conversations with what he believed was a 12-year-old girl from Newport has been handed a suspended prison sentence.

Dr Llion Evans, 41, from Elm Grove Road, Dinas Powys, Vale of Glamorgan, was caught in an undercover police operation where an officer posed as a child called Seren.

Cardiff Crown Court heard the paedophile discussed “naughty massages” with the fictional schoolgirl and shared a category A indecent image—the most serious kind—of a child being sexually abused.

When police raided his home, they found more than 300 child abuse images on a Samsung mobile phone. The haul included 75 category A images, 87 category B images and 204 category C images.

Evans, who used the username Jimbo Jones, gave a prepared statement to detectives in which he “apologised for his actions and was sorry for any harm he had caused”.

The Aberystwyth University physics graduate, who holds a PhD, pleaded guilty to attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, distributing indecent photographs of children, making indecent images of children, possession of a prohibited image of a child and possession of extreme pornographic images portraying rape.

His offending took place between New Year’s Day 2020 and October 7, 2023. He had no previous convictions.

The court heard Evans has lost his job and experienced the breakdown of his marriage since his arrest. He is now living with his parents and is being assessed for autism. He has been working with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation to rehabilitate himself.

Judge Vanessa Francis told Evans: “This was behaviour that was utterly reprehensible.”

She sentenced him to 20 months’ imprisonment, suspended for two years. He must complete 80 hours of unpaid work and a 20-day rehabilitation activity requirement.

Evans will have to register as a sex offender for the next 10 years and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same period. He must also pay £150 costs and a victim surcharge.