A father living in Llangrannog has been jailed after admitting to making almost 40,000 indecent images of children; and being in possession of a manual on the sexual abuse of children.

Officers arrested Jason Church in Milford Haven on August 23, 2023, when he was found to be in possession of a ‘paedophile manual’.

A warrant was executed at Church’s home address where police discovered 2,688 of the most serious indecent Category A images of a child, 4,160 indecent Category B images of a child and 32,205 indecent category C images of a child.

Appearing at Haverfordwest Magistrates’ Court last October, the defendant pleaded guilty to all charges.

Forty-year-old Church recently appeared at Swansea Crown Court for sentencing.

The court heard that at 7.15am on August 23, 2023, police officers and forensic investigators executed a search warrant at the defendant's family home in Milford Haven in response to intelligence which showed that indecent images had been downloaded by a device linked to the property.

A detailed examination of the seized Samsung phone belonging to Church and its SD memory card, revealed more than 39,000 pictures and film clips of children being sexually abused including 2,688 Category A images showing the most serious kinds of abuse.

Police later carried out a welfare check on the defendant's wife who was said to be in shock at what had occurred.

The court heard some of the images discovered on the mobile phone showed the attempted rape of a baby girl aged between two and four months.

Investigators also uncovered a 170-page book stored on the mobile device which was titled ‘How to Practice Child Love’ - which gave detailed step-by-step advice and instructions on how adults can find, groom, and have sex with children from the age of two years upwards.

The court heard that Church, who now resides in Llangrannog, had no previous convictions; and in his interview given to police, had admitted to downloading the indecent images.

On sentencing, Judge Huw Rees said he was of the view that the defendant posed "a risk and a danger to children" and that the children shown in the images on Church's device were real children being sexually abused and exploited to satisfy the degenerate and lustful demands of people like the defendant.

Judge Rees remarked that viewing material of the kind found on Church's phone would be a "harrowing experience for right-thinking people" but for the defendant, it appeared to be "a source of a base, crude sexual preoccupation".

Church was sentenced to 22 months in prison comprising 16 months for possession of indecent images; and six months for possession of the paedophile manual to run consecutively.

He will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

Church will be a registered sex offender for 10 years; and was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same length of time.