A Cwmavon man who took photographs of a teenage girl from her mother’s Facebook page and sent them to a paedophile in America has been jailed.
Chris Williams, 40, of Waun Wen in the Afan Valley village, was sentenced to 28 months at Swansea Crown Court after admitting a string of indecent and extreme image offences.
South Wales Police said Williams was identified when a Kik messaging account linked to his email address uploaded two Category A indecent images — the most serious kind — in November 2024.
The court heard officers attended his home last September after receiving information linking him to online offending, and seized his phone.
An initial examination found pictures of a teenage girl in school uniform. The images were not indecent, but Williams was arrested — and officers established the photographs had been downloaded from the girl’s mother’s Facebook page without her knowledge.
A full examination of the phone uncovered 103 indecent images of children, the court heard, including 41 in Category A, along with 81 extreme images.
It also revealed extensive chats on the Telegram app between Williams — using the name “Welsh Guy” — and a man in San Francisco, in which the pair discussed child sexual abuse and exchanged indecent images of young girls they had secretly taken.
The court heard Williams encouraged the American contact to abuse a child, and sent him the Facebook photographs of the teenager in her school uniform.
Williams, who has no previous convictions, pleaded guilty to charges including making, taking and distributing indecent photographs of a child, and possessing extreme pornographic images.
His barrister told the court a pre-sentence report had been unable to recommend an alternative to immediate custody, and said it was hoped Williams would engage with agencies to gain insight into his offending.
Judge Huw Rees rejected the defendant’s claim in that report to have no sexual interest in children, telling him it was “wholly false”. He said Williams had a “deeply unhealthy and degenerate” sexual interest in young children, and that his offending should be to his “undying shame”.
Williams will serve half his 28-month sentence in custody before release on licence. He will be a registered sex offender for ten years and is subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same period.
Detective Constable Elena Lewis of South Wales Police said the images Williams possessed and shared were “disgusting, depraved and completely unacceptable”, and proved he was a danger to children.
“This case has had quite an impact on the local community,” she said. “We hope that they and their families can now feel some reassurance with Chris Williams behind bars.”
The force said victims of sexual abuse who are not ready to report to police should not suffer in silence, with support services available. Children and young people can contact Childline free on 0800 1111.
