By Grâçia Ada Obi
A pensioner had more than 1,000 images on his laptop showing children as young as three being sexually abused, a court has heard. The 77-year-old had also visited websites about bestiality.
A judge at Swansea Crown Court said that as a grandfather himself he found it very difficult to understand how anyone could bring themselves to view such material. And he issued a warning to people accessing indecent images saying the reality is that police and tech companies know who they are and it is only a matter of time before they get a knock on the door.
Regan Walters, prosecuting, told the court that on June 27 last year police officers went to Gerald Sansom’s property following information that a Microsoft account linked to the address had been used to access indecent images. The defendant was home when the officers arrived and he confirmed he lived alone. Police seized a number of electronic devices and a triage examination of a laptop by a digital forensic expert showed the presence of indecent images. The defendant was arrested and answered “no comment” to all questions asked in his subsequent interview.
The court heard that a detailed examination of the seized laptop found a total of 1,040 indecent photographs and videos – including 292 Category A images which the most extreme forms of sexual abuse and rape – which had been downloaded between March 2019 and March 2023. Some of the images were of girls aged around three. The court heard the examination of the laptop’s browser history found it had been used to visit websites about sexual activity with children and with animals.
Gerald Sansom, of Rhyd y Coed, Birchgrove, Swansea, had previously pleaded guilty to three counts of making – that is possessing – indecent images of categories A, B, and C when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
Stuart John, for Sansom, said the long illness and passing of the defendant’s wife had a profound effect on his client and on the wider family and he said her death left Sansom “lonely and isolated” and suffering with depression. He said in making this “careful” submission he was not suggesting the bereavement caused the offending but said it had “accelerated” it and led to a “domino effect”. The advocate added that the offences his client had pleaded guilty to were ones which attracted a “level of opprobrium” from the public – particularly for a man in his 70s “who would be considered an upstanding member of the community and a family man”.
Judge Geraint Walters told the defendant the children shown in the images found on his laptop were real children being horribly abused qand he said as a grandfather himself he found it very difficult to understand how anyone could bring themselves to view such images. He described the online trade in indecent images as “a vile business”.
The judge said the offending clearly crossed the custody threshold and the only question for the court was whether that sentence had to be served immediately or could be suspended. He said with an appropriate application of the guidelines the sentence could be properly suspended. With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Sansom was sentenced to eight months in prison suspended for two years and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course. The defendant will be a registered sex offender for the next 10 years and will be subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same length of time.
Judge Walters said he was continually surprised that people continued to think they could get away with such offending. He said anyone accessing indecent images online needed to understand the police and tech companies know who they are and it is only a matter of time before they get a knock on the door from officers which will result not only in a criminal conviction but will mean they “will never again be able to hold their heads up high and have the respect of people”.