A Pembrokeshire paedophile has been sentenced to life imprisonment after admitting raping babies as young as 12 months old.

Martyn Armstrong, formerly of Haverfordwest, was described today as ‘sadistic’.

"The nature and depravity of your actions is shocking,” said Her Honour Judge Lloyd-Clarke as she passed sentence.

"This was sexual abuse of the very worst kind with very young children and it’s impossible to determine the reliable length of time you will remain a danger.”

The court heard that Armstrong committed multiple rapes against two infants who were between the ages of one and three.

"There was no attempt to screen the victims' face, and sometimes the child was looking directly at the camera”, commented barrister Peter Griffiths KC, for the Crown.

Armstrong, however, had attempted to disguise his own features by using a zig-zagging distortion device on Photoshop.

On August 11, 2010, Armstrong covertly photographed a little girl as she undressed on an undisclosed beach in Pembrokeshire.

These images were then shared on the internet and subsequently found on the dark web.

The child and her family were unaware of Armstrong's actions.

In a heart-wrenching personal statement that was read out to the court, one of the victims described how her life has been wrenched in pieces when she learned of Armstrong’s actions.

"I don't think I can ever fully comprehend what has happened," she said.

"I feel like I'm a stranger to myself.

"There is no punishment that would feel like enough justice for what [he has] done.

"As a child, I thought monsters had purple fur and yellow spots, but the only monster all along was you."

Law enforcement partners across the world had been trying to identify Armstrong ever since the abuse material was first posted in 2010. 

The images were subsequently referred to the National Crime Agency by the Australian Federal Police in 2013, after they were posted on dark web site 'The Love Zone'.

Some of the images showed the horrific rape and sexual abuse of a toddler, but the perpetrator could not be identified because the images had been distorted.

They have since been viewed in 19 countries, including south America, Australia and Brazil.

In 2017 Italian investigators linked the name “Martyn” to the person who took the images, but were unable to progress the case further.

The same year a French investigator adopted the case, and worked on identifying the Pembrokeshire beach which had been seen in some images linked to the offender.

After conducting significant research on the geology of the landscape, he established that rocks on the beach in the photo must either be in Ireland or Wales. He compared them to images of over 60 beaches before striking an exact match on the Pembrokeshire coast.

Armstrong was identified in July 2022 after specialist National Crime Agency investigators reversed distortion filters which the defendant had used to disguise his face.

He was subsequently stopped and arrested by south Wales police officers whilst driving on the M4.

The case remained unsolved until 2022, when NCA investigators created a new programme which finally disabled the image distortion technique. This revealed the face of the offender but his identity, and that of his victim, was still unknown.

It was discovered that at the time of the abuse, Armstrong lived in Derbyshire but in January 2022 had sold his house and moved to Haverfordwest.

Following his arrest, NCA investigators found a number of devices in Armstrong’s home, including one of the two cameras which he had used in 2010. This was forensically matched to the camera which took the images.

Armstrong was sentenced to life imprisonmnet.  He must serve a minimum of 14 years and can only be released following a successful appeal to the parole board. 

He will be subjected to a Sexual Harm Prevention Order for 25 years.