A PAEDOPHILE caught with almost 1,500 illegal images and who expressed a desire to “kidnap, rape and kill children” posed as a young woman on Snapchat to trick children in to sending him explicit pictures of themselves.

Police visited the home of Aaron Turvey, 24, of Heol Llethryd in Pontyberem, on May 21 last year and he was arrested on suspicion of possessing indecent images, prosecutor Alycia Carpanini said. His laptop, a mobile phone and a USB stick were seized.

The police attended again on December 22, where he was arrested for a second time and another phone and USB stick were seized.

Across the devices, 1,411 illegal images and videos were found. 432 of these were Category A images – the most extreme type, 431 were Category B, 545 were Category C, two were extreme pornographic images, and there was one more prohibited image.

Ms Carpanini said officers believed 39 of the images and videos were created by the defendant. 

The police have since identified the children who were in these images. They told officers the defendant had “showed [them] his penis” and had “bribed” them by promising to teach them to play a video game.

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Turvey’s phone also revealed he posed as a 20-year-old woman on Snapchat in order to solicit indecent images of children.

The court heard he sent images of a woman to a child – who was 12 at the time – and asked for the child to send pictures in return – which he did. After the child became suspicious, the defendant admitted he wasn’t a woman and sent them a picture of his genitals.

Officers also discovered Turvey’s conversations on the Telegram app, where he repeatedly expressed a desire to “kidnap, rape and kill children” and where illegal images were being shared.

On the phone seized in December, a conversation was found where Turvey said: “Might be a bit risky planning to rape and kill kids when I’m under investigation lol”.

He was arrested on May 4, and answered no comment in interview.

Kate Williams, in mitigation, said: “The defendant pleaded guilty at the Magistrates’ Court at the earliest opportunity. I think that is the best mitigation I can put forward.

“It can only be hoped that some intervention can prevent further offending.

“I think it’s inevitable – and the defendant accepts – that a custodial sentence will be imposed.”

The court heard that Turvey – who has no previous convictions – had told the author of the pre-sentence report that the conversations on Telegram were him “trying to prevent others from kidnapping, raping and killing children by talking about the matter”.

Judge Wayne Beard described this as “fanciful” and “plainly nonsense”.

Addressing Turvey, Judge Beard said: “It’s appalling to note that the age of the children involved in these images were as young as two to three years of age.”

Turvey was jailed for a total of four years. He will then serve an extended period of a further four years on licence. He must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life, and was made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order.