PHILIP BROMFIELD OF RHONDDA JAILED FOR CHILD ABUSE IMAGE OFFENSES IN MERTHYR TYDFIL

A 49-year-old DJ from Rhondda, Philip Kenneth Bromfield, has been sentenced to eight months in prison at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court after admitting to downloading and viewing child abuse images. The court was informed that Bromfield, who lives with his elderly father in Zion Terrace, Tonypandy, had only acquired a computer recently and claimed his viewing of the images was driven by curiosity.

Bromfield pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including making indecent pseudo-photographs of children, possessing such photographs, and possessing them with intent, covering the period from August 24, 2002, to July 10, 2003. Authorities found a total of 141 images depicting real children, categorized into various levels of explicitness, along with four video files. The images included one movie, images at level one showing erotic posing, level two featuring sexual activity involving children or on their own, and levels three and four depicting non-penetrative and penetrative sexual acts between adults and children.

The police recovered 52 static images at level one, 49 at level two, 24 at level three, 12 at level four, and four movies at level three. Prosecutor Sharon Bahia stated that during police interviews, Bromfield explained he accessed the internet using his username 'Harbour Lights,' which was also the name of his disco, simply out of curiosity, but he was unsure why he continued to do so.

Defence lawyer Stuart McLeese noted that Bromfield had fully cooperated with law enforcement and had entered guilty pleas at the first opportunity in Pontypridd Magistrates' Court. The court learned that Bromfield's home was searched following inquiries by the Metropolitan Police into paedophile activities. McLeese told the court that Bromfield had been troubled by the situation since his interview in July 2003 but was not formally charged until October of that year.

He added, 'He said that he wished he had never clapped eyes on any of the material and cannot explain why he continued to look at it for more than six months.' The defence also explained that most of the images had been deleted but were inadvertently saved into a shared document folder by default.

Judge John Curran sentenced Bromfield to eight months in prison, describing the nature of the images as 'disgusting' and indicative of child abuse. The judge also imposed a two-year extended licence period and ordered Bromfield to register as a sex offender for ten years. Additionally, there was an order for the computer and related equipment to be forfeited and destroyed.