A 44-YEAR-OLD Caldicot man who boasted in an internet chatroom about sexually abusing a child has been jailed for 16 months.
Kevin Williams, formerly of Cirencester, but now of Blackbird Road, Caldicot, admitted two offences of sexual assault on a child.
He also admitted eight further offences of taking and making indecent images of children.
Gloucester Crown Court heard how Williams had removed a girl’s clothing to take indecent photographs and boasted in an online chatroom about spying on the girl showering.
Prosecutor Janine Wood said that Gloucestershire Police arrested him on 7th January after being alerted to his chatroom comments by police in Norfolk.
They subsequently found indecent images of children on his computer.
Judge Michael Cullum sentenced him to sixteen months in prison on Monday (25th April) for two counts of sexual assault on a child and four months concurrently for making and taking indecent images of children.
The judge said the case was too serious for anything other than an immediate custody term.
Judge Cullum made a 10 year sexual harm prevention order against Williams and told him he would have to sign the sex offender register for 10 years.
The judge also ordered the confiscation and destruction of Williams’ computer equipment.
Mrs Wood said 733,000 images were found on Williams’ computer and police checked a sample of 17,000. Of those, two were the most serious type of child abuse at category A, six at Category B and 142 at Category C.
Clare Fear, defending, said he was remorseful and had shown insight into the effect of his crimes. She submitted that he was suitable for counselling and a sex offender programme coupled with a suspended sentence.
Judge Cullum disagreed and said there had to be an immediate prison sentence for such serious offences against the girl.