THOMAS CHESTERMAN FROM WROUGHTON FACES SERIOUS CHILD ABUSE CHARGES IN SWINDON

In July 2020, authorities uncovered disturbing evidence involving Thomas Chesterman, a 79-year-old resident of Wroughton, who was found to possess highly illegal and disturbing images depicting child sexual abuse. The case came to light after investigators received a tip-off indicating that an IP address registered in Wroughton had accessed a file-sharing website notorious for hosting and distributing child exploitation material.

Swindon magistrates heard that law enforcement officials traced the IP address back to Chesterman’s residence on Boness Road. This led to a police raid early this year, during which officers seized multiple electronic devices, including computers, USB sticks, and external hard drives, all believed to contain illicit content.

During questioning, Chesterman claimed to detectives that he had been introduced to the website by a Dutch man. He admitted to installing the file-sharing program but insisted he had not actively shared any files. He stated that he had only clicked on one image but denied downloading any material. However, when pressed further, he confessed that his curiosity had led him to view the images. When asked whether he had watched the videos, he chose not to comment.

At his court appearance before Swindon Magistrates’ Court, Chesterman pleaded guilty to three counts of making nine indecent images of children, which were categorized into the three most serious levels—categories A, B, and C. Despite this, prosecutor Emma Charleton revealed that forensic analysis of his devices uncovered a total of 134 images of child abuse stored on his computers and storage media. These images were stored in such a way that they could only be accessed with specialized software. Among these, 47 images fell into the most severe category, A.

One particularly disturbing image depicted a baby estimated to be between six and eight months old being raped by an adult male. Another showed a young girl, aged between five and seven, being sexually abused by a man. Further evidence indicated that Chesterman had used the Microsoft Bing search engine to look up indecent images of children, highlighting his active pursuit of such material.

Ms. Charleton requested that the case be transferred to the Crown Court for sentencing, a motion that was supported by the defense lawyer, Terry McCarthy. Chesterman was granted bail and scheduled to appear before Swindon Crown Court on August 28. The chairman of the magistrates’ bench, Martin Clarke, expressed the court’s concern, stating, “You’ve heard what’s been said. This court doesn’t feel that our powers of punishment are enough.”