Man found with more than 15,000 indecent images of children
A 38 year old from Ebbw Vale has been sentenced
A man who spent more than a decade building up a collection of 15,000 indecent images of children has been sentenced to 30 months in prison.
Ross Hughes, from Ebbw Vale, was sentenced to two and a half years in prison after appearing at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court yesterday.
He had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of distributing indecent images of children and three counts of making indecent images of children.
A detailed examination of the Hughes’ devices found that over a 16-year period he had collected 15,155 indecent images of children ranging across all three categories of severity.
DCI Matthew Edwards said: “Accessing, downloading and distributing indecent images of children is not a victimless crime.
“Perpetrators often don’t think of the impact that these images have on children once published or the abuse that takes place behind the scenes. I hope that today’s sentence acts as a deterrent for others. We take all allegations of child sexual abuse seriously and will put perpetrators before the courts.”
The 38-year-old was also given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.