A CONVICTED sex offender has been jailed after being found with pictures and videos of children being sexually abused on his phone.

Police attended the home of Wayne Mansbridge on June 26 last year and arrested him in relation to an unrelated matter.

That matter has since been discontinued, prosecutor Caitlin Brazel said, but as part of the investigation his phone was seized and analysed.

A total of 149 indecent pictures and videos of children were found on Mansbridge’s phone, of which 138 were accessible and 11 inaccessible.

Ms Brazel said the images involved children as young as eight years old.

  • For the latest crime and court news for west Wales, you can join our Facebook group here.

Mansbridge attended Haverfordwest Police Station on January 5 this year relating to the unrelated matter, and was then further arrested for possession of the indecent images.

The court heard that the 57-year-old defendant, of Oak Grove in Twycross, had eight previous convictions for 11 offences, and was subject to the sex offender notification requirements at the time of these offences.

He was convicted in 2013 of possessing extreme pornography and of sexually assaulting a serving soldier who he had given a lift to in the rain between Tenby and Castlemartin in 2014. Earlier this year, he was also convicted of breaching the terms of his sex offender notification requirements after he jetted off on holiday to Morocco without notifying the police.

Mansbridge pleaded guilty to three offences of possessing indecent images of children – of categories A, B and C – and two offences of making indecent images – of categories B and C – of children.

“The defendant stands by his guilty pleas. He accepts his offending,” said Matthew Murphy, for Mansbridge.

Mr Murphy added that – despite the defendant making comments when speaking to the probation service which “ran contrary to his guilty pleas” – the author of the pre-sentence report had said there was “a prospect of rehabilitation” in his case.

He also asked the court to consider the principle of totality when sentencing the defendant for the five offences he had admitted.

“These images are shared extensively on the internet and they remain on the internet forever and a day,” said Judge Huw Rees, as he branded Mansbridge’s interest in children as “unhealthy” and “degenerate”.

“These are not just victims, but real children,” he said.

He revoked the community order the defendant was currently serving, adding: “The court has given you opportunity after opportunity.”

Mansbridge was jailed for a total of 14 months. He must register as a sex offender for 10 years, and was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order.