Using the guise of a people trafficker, a married father sent pornographic pictures of his four-year-old child to a woman on a dating website. When the cops showed up at the family’s residence, his wife said: “obscene depictions of children? Say you haven’t, please.”
In March of last year, Gareth Thomas, 39, of Newport, started a chat with a woman on Badoo before switching it to Instagram. He stated that he had not had any children and had been single for seven years. The defendant allegedly told the woman he “hurts people” when working in Germany when she asked him what he did for a living at a sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court.
According to prosecutor Jac Brown, Thomas continued by requesting that the woman download the Telegram app. He responded that he was involved in human trafficking and “kidnapped homeless people and immigrants to sell them for money” when she asked him what he did again. The woman continued the chat after deciding she did not believe the defendant.
The woman said Thomas gave her a selfie of a 17-year-old child with the message that he would be punished for “being a snitch” and that he was “busy” because of the conflict in Ukraine. On April 24, when she inquired about the defendant’s occupation once more, he said that he “rented out a five-year-old girl” to ten men for £15,000.
Mr. Brown described the situation as follows: “A Category A indecent image of a four-year-old girl was sent to her. The remainder of the day was a haze as [the woman] struggled to understand what she had just seen.
She called the police the next morning once she had recovered enough from her shock and had had time to digest what she had seen.” Later, the victim discovered that the defendant had deleted both their communications and his online personas on several social media platforms.
When police arrived at Thomas’ residence, his wife answered the door and informed her husband of the subject of the warrant: “obscene depictions of children? Say you haven’t, please.” Thomas was taken into custody, and several electronic devices, including an iPhone in rose gold, were seized.
Thomas confessed to having and disseminating indecent photographs of children during his police questioning.
He claimed he didn’t enjoy the photos’ sexual connotations but that he did love watching people’s reactions to them. He claimed that when he communicated with people online, he sent them recordings of victims of assault before following up with pictures of children.
When the iPhone was investigated, it was discovered to include nine extreme pornographic photographs including animals and youngsters between the ages of four and ten.
Thomas, a Newport resident, entered a guilty plea to having both extreme and indecent pornographic photographs in his possession. He had a good reputation in the past.
Gareth Williams provided mitigation by stating that although his client was still employed, his marriage had broken and he was only permitted supervised contact with his children. He said that since the defendant’s family would suffer financially from his incarceration, the matter might be handled in the community.
Judge Lucy Crowther’s sentence was as follows: “It is clear that you are aware that your thought processes are twisted and that there are significant underlying problems. You yourself have sought treatment for that. Women and children continue to be at risk due to the harm that indecent photographs do worldwide.”
Thomas received a sentence of 20 months in prison with a two-year suspension. He was mandated to complete a 40-day rehabilitation activity requirement, 180 hours of unpaid labor, pay £420 in court costs, and submit to a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.
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