July 2007 Child abuse images charity worker jailed A charity worker and former Cardiff shopping centre manager has been jailed for 18 months for downloading indecent images of children. Michael Kelly had made trips to eastern Europe to take charity parcels to children, Cardiff Crown Court heard. But when police raided his Bridgend home they found almost 5,000 pictures and two films on his computers. Kelly, aged 51, now of Kingswood, South Gloucestershire, had admitted 19 charges. Of the pictures found during the raid, 16 were graded by police as the most serious type. The court was told he had visited paedophile chat rooms using the name of a woman he knew. Previous hearings had been told that Kelly had been manager of the Queens Arcade shopping centre in Cardiff. Judge David Wynn Morgan said: “You are a man of intelligence and exceptional character who has made a significant contribution to humanitarian causes. “But hidden away from the rest of the world was your computer where you practised serious sexual abuse.” “These images exist because of the demand of people such as yourself.” Kelly admitted 15 counts of making indecent pictures of children and four counts of possessing such pictures. Kelly has been working at Cancer Research since last year and has done aid work in the Balkans since 1993, the court heard. The judge said Kelly had been of “previous exemplary character” and added: “You were held in high regard by friends, colleagues and people who shared experiences in central and eastern Europe when involved in charitable actions you voluntarily undertook.” But he said Kelly’s world had “collapsed” while he had been waiting to be sentenced for the offences. Kelly was also disqualified from working with children.