April 2022

Paedophile used girl’s social media prom photo to make vile sex abuse images

A paedophile took a girl’s prom photo from social media and edited it onto adult pornographic pictures for his sexual gratification, a court has heard.

John Howells used photographs of a number of unsuspecting children and women and superimposed them on photographs of women having sex with other females and with dogs as well as sometimes putting pictures of his own face into the images.

The digital manipulation was part of series of sick offending by Howells which saw him downloading thousands of images and videos of children being sexually abused and raped and also secretly recording girls and women over a four-year period.

When police arrested the defendant he told officers that the indecent material they would find on his computers was research he was doing for a film he was working on and were part of his attempts to “get into the mindset of the abuser and the abused”.

Sending 50-year-old Howells to prison a judge described that excuse as “risible”.

Swansea Crown Court heard that in January 2020 police executed a search warrant at Howells’ house in Neath and seized a total of 20 electronic devices including a number of computer hard drives and laptop computers.

Hannah George, prosecuting, said the defendant told officers that he was working on a screenplay about sexual abuse and incest and had been looking at various “studies” on the subject as research.

A full forensic examination of the devices found indecent material on six of them with more than 17,000 photographs and videos of child sex abuse as well as evidence of thousands more which had been deleted over time.

The prosecutor said it was clear from the images recovered and the internet search terms Howells had been using to find the material there had had been “deliberate and sustained” viewing of indecent material and especially that involving themes of bestiality, incest, and schoolgirls.

Officers found large numbers of extreme pornographic images and so-called “pseudo” images of children, many of which the defendant had digitally doctored by adding photographs of real girls and women who had no idea their images were being used.

In some cases the photographs of females were superimposed into photos of women having sex with dogs.

In other cases Howells put the faces onto pornographic images showing men and women having sex and would then put his face on the male body.

The court heard police identified and tracked down one of the girls involved and it emerged Howell had used her school prom picture which had been shared on social media.

Miss George said police also found stories written by the defendant under a pseudonym which featured bestiality and the rape of children. Detectives found at least one of these stories was available to buy online.

The court heard that further examination of the devices found evidence that Howells had been secretly videoing women and girls over a four-year period.

When the defendant was formally interviewed he again told officers he was writing a screenplay and the material on his devices was research. He said he wanted to “get into the mindset of the abuser and the abused”. Howells accepted taking some of the images found on his computers were from people’s social media accounts.

The court heard police had identified and spoken to some of the females whose photographs the defendant had used and in victim impact statements read to the court they described the devastating impact his offending has had on their lives.

The female whose prom photos he used said she has been left suffering with panic attacks and said she cannot now look at photographs of what had been a happy and innocent event as the memories of the prom had been “tainted” and she feels “violated”.

Another victim said she has deleted all her social media accounts and no longer feels safe. One victim said she had been forced to quit university after finding out what had been going on as her mental health had deteriorated.

John Craig Howells, of Bryn Awel, Cimla, Neath, admitted three counts of possession of indecent images of Categories A, B and C, to possession of extreme pornography, possession of prohibited images of children, and to one count of voyeurism. He has one previous conviction of some age for a criminal damage matter.

Dan Griffiths, for Howells, said the defendant’s behaviour “quite frankly beggars belief” and said it was acknowledged that he had caused enormous psychological damage to his victims. The advocate said that since his arrest his client had been voluntarily working with the Stop It Now charity to address his offending and was motivated to change.

Judge Paul Thomas QC said Howells’ “vile offending” had been driven by his “warped sexual attractions” and he described the defendant’s excuse that he had been doing research for a screenplay as “risible”. He said while the defendant only had one old and unrelated conviction on his record the fact was Howells had been “living a lie” for most of his life.

The judge said despite the contents of the pre-sentence report, the defendant’s remorse, and the letters sent to the court which showed another side to the defendant including his charitable works, the offending was far too serious for any sentence other than immediate custody and he would be failing in his public duty if he did not pass such a sentence.

However he noted the sentence he could pass was constrained by the prosecution’s decision to only lay one charge of voyeurism when Howells had, in fact, filmed females on multiple occasions over a number of years.

The judge said he was “very surprised” by the Crown Prosecution Service’s decision but was bound to be faithful to it in his sentencing.

With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas Howells was sentenced to a total of 26 months in prison.

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

He was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for 10 years which is designed to control his access to the internet and will be a registered sex offender for the same length of time