The court heard paedophile Gethin Samuel of Old Road, Llanelli, had been sexually attracted to children for 25 years. Police found images on his phone of girls as young as four being raped by adult men.
Despite Samuel making admissions to officers on the day he was arrested, it took police almost three-and-a-half years to charge him.
A judge at Swansea Crown Court said that had the defendant been dealt with in a timely fashion, he could not have avoided prison, and described the delay as “about as astonishing a failure as I have seen”.
The court heard a triage examination of Samuel’s iPhone showed the presence of indecent images, and the defendant was arrested and taken into custody.
The prosecutor said Samuel was interviewed later that day and made an admission to officers that he had had a sexual interest in children since the age of 12 and that he had spent the last 25 years “trying to get better”.
He also said that in “moments of weakness” he had viewed indecent images and admitted sharing such images with others. Following his interview, Samuel was released on conditional bail for a full download and examination of the phone to be done.
The prosecutor stated that the download of phone evidence wasn’t ready until July 2024, approximately two and a half years after the device was seized, and the defendant wasn’t charged until July of this year. The prosecutor said it had to be accepted that the delay was “inordinate and inexcusable”.
The court heard the iPhone was found to contain 169 indecent images including 63 which were Category A – the most serious category – some of which were images of girls as young as four being raped by adult men. Police also found Samuel had shared images, including Category A images, with other people via the Telegram app.
Samuel, who had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children and three counts of distributing indecent images of children, appeared in the dock for sentencing on Monday, September 1. He has no previous convictions.
Judge Geraint Walters told the defendant that the children in the images he had viewed and shared were not actors but were real children somewhere in the world being sexual abused, and he said every time the images are shared that abuse continues.
Judge Walters stated that if the case had been brought before the courts in a timely manner, he would have, upon a proper application of the sentencing guidelines, sent the defendant to immediate custody. He said the public had been “let down” by the “shocking” delay and said the “only winner” was the defendant, adding: “We are all used to delays these days, but this is just about as astonishing a failure as I have seen”.
With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Samuel was handed a prison sentence of two years, which will be suspended for two years. He will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same length of time.
The judge told Samuel, “The delay has just about saved you. It would not have been possible without it.”
