A convicted sex offender was chatting to fellow paedophiles and exchanging images of child sex abuse using secret smartphones, a court has heard.
Wayne Hartley is banned from owing internet-enabled devices unless he tells the police about them and makes them available for inspection.
But during a surprise visit to his home a couple of days before Christmas officers uncovered two smartphones - and found he had been using them to contact fellow paedophiles, and to share images. In response to one of the videos of child sex abuse he was sent by a contact the 45-year-old defendant replied: "Mmmmm".
Swansea Crown Court heard that on December 21 last year police made an unannounced visit to Hartley's home in Swansea. Ashanti-Jade Walton, prosecuting, said the defendant was being managed and monitored by South Wales Police's public protection unit after being made the subject of a community order in 2018 for possession of indecent images.
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The court heard that when questioned Hartley denied owning any internet-capable devices - but the officers spotted a wi-fi router in the property. When quizzed about it, and the defendant said he used it for streaming Netflix programmes and films. However, while officers were at the address a friend of the defendant popped in for a visit, and she confirmed to police she regularly spoke to Hartley on the phone, and via Facebook.
Hartley again denied having any phones, but a search uncovered a gold coloured Samsung smartphone and a rose gold Apple iPhone. The court heard told officers "there will just be a few images of boys on it".
A forensic examination of the phones found a total of 41 videos and photos in Category A - showing the most extreme kinds of sexual abuse - along with 10 Category B images, and 31 Category C. Investigators also found he had communicating with fellow paedophiles on secure messaging apps such as Telegram - where his username was Smoothc*ck45 - and had sent and received indecent videos. In response to one of the films of sexual abuse sent to him by another person on Telegram the defendant had replied: "Mmmmm".
Wayne Richard Mark Hartley, of Bryn Eithin, Gowerton, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images, to one charge of distributing images, and to breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) by owning smartphones he had not notified the police about when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. At Swansea Crown Court in 2018 he was made the subject of a 24 month community order and a five-year SHPO for possession of indecent images.
David Singh, for Hartley, said the only real mitigation he could put forward was his client's guilty pleas. He said the defendant had moved to Swansea for work, his client being a forklift truck driver.
Judge Paul Thomas QC said Hartley had told police officers "brazen and bare-faced" lies when they attended his house in December.
Giving the defendant a one-third discount for his guilty pleas the judge sentenced him to two years and four months in prison. Hartley will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. The length of the SHPO was extended by 10 years.
