CWMLLYNFELL TEENAGER HAD CHILD SEX ABUSE IMAGES ON HIS PHONE
A TEENAGER who was found with child sex abuse pictures and videos on his phone claimed to police they were already on the device when he bought it.Police attended the home of Damian Hurford on May 17 last year after receiving intelligence that a Dropbox account linked to the defendant contained child sex abuse images.
Hurford told officers his mobile phone was at his workplace, and he provided the PIN once this was recovered, prosecutor Georgia Donohue said.
A forensic examination of the phone found two Category A – the most serious – and five Category C indecent images of children, as well as an inaccessible extreme pornographic image – which was not charged.
Ms Donohue said one of the Category A images included a video of a girl aged 12 to 14 doing a sex act on herself.
Police checked Hurford’s Snapchat account and found “a number of borderline images” in a conversation with another user, with a visible username matching one in a Category C image.
Hurford said he bought the phone on Facebook Marketplace “three or four weeks prior” and a factory reset had not been done.
He claimed the images must have been left by the previous owner.
Hurford, now 19, of Heol Brynbrain in Cwmllynfell, pleaded guilty to two offences of making indecent images of children.
He was sentenced to a 12-month community order, including a 12-month mental health treatment requirement and 20 rehabilitation activity days.
He must also register as a sex offender for five years.
