A ‘vile and repulsive’ Pembrokeshire sex offender who downloaded over 1,000 sexual images of children as young as eight onto his mobile phone has appeared before Swansea Crown Court for sentence.

For almost four years Wayne Hope, 57, of Brookside Avenue, Johnston, allowed his pornography addiction to get out of control.

The court heard how, in July 2017, Hope ‘stumbled’ across some indecent images of children whilst searching the internet.

The former county council worker then downloaded them onto his mobile phone and viewed them on a regular basis. When police arrived at his home on May 17, 2021, to carry out a search, they discovered no fewer than 177 Category A photographic images of children.

Descriptions of some of those images were read out by Georgia Jones, Counsel for the Crown, and their graphic content was deplored by Judge Geraint Walters.

“These images can only be described as vile and repulsive,” he said.

“But these aren’t my words – they’re yours. These images are not of actors but of real children.”

In addition to the 177 Category A images, police recovered a further 168 Category B images, 715 Category C images and 67 prohibited images of children. The images were downloaded by Hope between July 2017 and May 2021 and depicted children between the ages of eight and 14.

He pleaded guilty to each of the four charges.

Hope’s defence counsel Dyfed Thomas, said his client had previously lived in Denbighshire and had re-located to Pembrokeshire in 2011.

“He had been viewing adult pornography but moved on to these kinds of images,” he said.

"The remorse he feels is clear, but he was gaining sexual gratification from them in what were some very dark times in his life.”

Dyfed Thomas went on to say that his client fully accepts his wrongdoing.

“He’s more than happy to abide by any order and when I asked him if he would be prepared to carry out various courses he said ‘Yes. Not because I have to, but because I want to’.”

Passing sentence, Judge Geraint Walters stated that anyone responsible for downloading indecent images such as these of vulnerable young children is ‘waiting for the knock’.

“It will happen, and people are just biding their time,” he said.

“The police know who’s doing it, thank goodness, and there will come a time when these people will be brought to justice.”

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Wayne Hope was sentenced to 12 months in custody, suspended for two years.

He must carry out a ten-day rehabilitation activity requirement and must also complete a Horizon programme which is designed to deal with internet child offending.

He was placed on the sex offenders’ register for ten years and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order. He was ordered to pay £300 prosecution costs and a £140 court surcharge.

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