RUSSELL BROOKMAN
Russell Brookman, a 46-year-old from Monmouth who later lived in Warwick Close, Chippenham, told an undercover police officer that he fantasised about having sex with children.He believed he was chatting with a genuine woman when he disclosed his attraction, which he described as driven by a sense of how morally wrong it was.
Brookman stated that this was a fantasy he had not acted upon and had not fulfilled.
He also sent explicit child abuse images and expressed particular interest in a girl aged 10, whom he described as “very cute.” The online communications occurred between July 30 and September 23, 2025.
Brookman confessed to arranging or encouraging a child sex offence and also admitted to distributing indecent images categorised as B and C.
He had no previous criminal record.
Alice Sykes representing him said: “He knows he has an issue which desperately needs to be addressed.” Her client had sought help from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a UK-based charity focused on child protection.
Miss Sykes added that her client works and there was a realistic prospect of him being rehabilitated in the community under the auspices of the probation service as part of a suspended prison sentence.
The judge, Recorder Barry Clarke, disagreed and told the defendant that his offending was so serious that only an immediate custodial sentence was appropriate.
Brookman was jailed for two years and eight months and was told he would serve around half of that in prison before being released on licence.
He will have to register as a sex offender for life and he was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for seven years.
A £228 surcharge must be paid.
