Sex offender found with child sex abuse images on his phone

Wayne Mansbridge, 57, of Oak Grove in Twycross, was sentenced to a total of 14 months after being found with 149 pictures and videos of child sexual abuse on his phone.

“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.

“The court has given you opportunity after opportunity.”

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Swansea Crown Court heard that police attended Mansbridge’s home 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.

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 he 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.

Wayne Mansbridge was jailed after being found with indecent images of children. (Image: Dyfed-Powys 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.

Judge Rees revoked the community order the defendant was currently serving, and imposed the 14-month sentence.

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