A man who cared for his elderly mother had a total of 245 images of child sexual abuse on his laptop, including 78 of the most serious Category A images and a two-minute video of a young girl being sexually abused.

Also on Lee Broadbent’s laptop were 101 Category B indecent images and 66 Category C images.

Broadbent, 47, of Maesderi in Hendy had admitted to three charges of making indecent images of children on September 3 of this year.

On Tuesday, September 24 Swansea Crown Court heard that the images had been made between November 2015 and April 2022.

One of the Category A images described in court featured a female child between the ages of five and eight.

Police also found evidence of an eraser application on Broadbent’s computer, which he had used to try and erase evidence of his offending just days before police seized his laptop.

They also found a peer to peer file sharing application and internet search terms for pre teen hardcore porn.

The court heard that Broadbent had no previous convictions and was of previously clean character.

In his defence it was said that the offending coincided with a period when Belmont was caring for his elderly mother which had left him depressed and searching for escape in both legal and illegal pornography. Although it was acknowledged that this did not excuse the offending.

The court heard that Broadbent has recently sought medical help for both depression and anxiety. It was said that he no longer had a desire to download these type of images and did not want to possess the laptop he had downloaded the images on.

Judge Her Honour Catherine Richards KC passed a 14 month prison sentence for the Category A images, a four month sentence for the Category B images and a 1 month sentence for the Category C images, all to run concurrently.

Judge Richards suspended the sentence, saying that after reading a pre sentence report by the probation service, she believed that there was a realistic prospect of rehabilitation in the community.

She also imposed a 20 day rehabilitation activity requirement and 200 hours of unpaid work.

She made a sexual harm prevention order and told Broadbent that he would be subject to a sexual offender notification requirement for the next ten years.