An ex-BBC Wales producer attempted to blame colleagues at the corporation after he was found in possession of thousands of indecent images of young children. He made searches for “jailbait” with the images found on a laptop, hard drive, and two iPads.
Dylan Dawes, 50, made radio shows for stars including comedian Rhod Gilbert and Final Score host Jason Mohammad at the time of his crimes while working from BBC HQ in Llandaff, Cardiff. He downloaded more than 6,000 indecent images of children over a lengthy period.
During a trial at Cardiff Crown Court the defendant claimed he had “no idea” how the images had got onto his devices and said he had often left them in “open-plan” BBC offices where colleagues could have used them. Make sure you never miss Wales’ biggest updates by getting our daily newsletter.
Dawes said he worked for BBC Radio Wales as a producer before moving into a “content producing” role for the broadcaster’s website.
Asked who he had produced shows for Dawes said: “Jason Mohammad, Jamie Owen, Rhod Gilbert for many years. Other comedians. A number of people who people might be familiar with.”
Cardiff Crown Court heard more than 6,200 images had been found or recovered including 192 category A images – the most serious kind.
Some of these images depicted pre-pubescent children being raped by adults.
Dawes said while working on such shows he would not take his computer with him to the studio and would leave it at his desk for “extended periods of time” where it was freely available to colleagues.
Dawes had been on a family holiday to Disneyland Paris and arrived home in Canton, Cardiff, at around 1am only to be woken by police at 7am in February 2022. He was then taken for questioning at Cardiff Bay police station and answered a series of questions regarding his job and computers.
The defendant told the jury he was suspended on full pay following his arrest and was signed off sick with stress and didn’t carry out his own investigation into who else may have used his devices.
During the trial prosecutor Harry Baker said: “During a period of time of about 16 years between December 31, 2006, and March 1, 2022, the defendant has been downloading child pornography. That is indecent images on four different and distinct computer devices he owned.”
The seized devices included a Freecom hard drive, a Compaq laptop, and two iPads. Mr Baker said when he was arrested Dawes denied possessing or making any indecent images of children. He said he had loaned an iPad to a colleague “for purely work-related purposes”.
Dawes, of Heol Terrell, Canton, pleaded not guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images and three counts of making indecent images but was found guilty following a four-day trial.
Dawes had worked with household names -Credit:WALES NEWS SERVICE
At a sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court on Thursday defence barrister Andrew Taylor said his client had “lost everything” and is now unable to live in the family home with his wife and three children.
The defence barrister said the defendant had a successful career with the BBC but would now struggle to find work.
Sentencing, Judge Eugene Egan said it was clear Dawes was an “intelligent man” who would have to come to terms with his offending through rehabilitation.
The judge said: “Right-minded members of society will feel total and utter revulsion… Offences of this kind involve images depicting the actual abuse of real children somewhere in the world. Those images were created because there’s a market for this depraved material.
“Somewhere in the world numerous and real children were sexually abused to create the content you sought. The rationale behind that is there are warped people like you who are interested in consuming such material.
“You pointed the finger of suspicion at colleagues. You sought to widen the net of potential suspects. The real truth is this: none of these many hundreds of people were to blame. You and you alone were to blame and I find that you knew it.”
Judge Egan said the defendant would continue to pay a heavy price for his offending and said he felt sorry for his wife and children.
Dawes was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment suspended for two years.
The defendant was also made subject to a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement as well as sex offender notification requirements and a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years each. He must also pay £1,000 in costs.
Following the hearing an NSPCC spokesman said: “Each one of the thousands of images downloaded by Dawes depicts a child who has been sexually exploited. Child sexual abuse can have devastating and lifelong effects and downloading such material fuels this terrible crime and drives further offending.
“Law enforcement is not able to identify many of the victims in these kinds of images leaving them without the support they need to process what has happened to them and move forwards with their lives. It is vital that the online world is made safer for children so that offenders are prevented from being able to access such appalling material.”
Get daily breaking news updates on your phone by joining our WhatsApp community here. We occasionally treat members to special offers, promotions and ads from us and our partners. See our Privacy Notice.