Tony Greenwood, 53, now of Bridge Street, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment at Mold Crown Court today (April 25).

In total, he was charged with seven counts of sexually assaulting a child under 13, possessing 704 indecent images of a child ranging from Category A to C, 168 extreme pornographic images, 49 prohibited images of a child, and 13 videos.

He was also handed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), and made subject to notification requirements, indefinitely.

Prosecuting, Simon Rogers told the court that, in September 2022, two mothers reported that their daughters, had been sexually abused by Greenwood when they were roughly six years old.

When interviewed by police, one girl said that Greenwood “touched her weirdly” both over and under her clothing.

Greenwood would tell her that he had sweets for her as she passed her house, she said, and would stand at his door and watch as she played in a nearby park.

The girl said that Greenwood had swords on the wall of his bedroom, while she also noticed a box which she assumed to be a camera, given she saw it flashing sometimes.

Sometimes, Greenwood’s abuse would cause her physical pain, she said, but that she would “pretend she didn’t know what was happening”.

Another girl abused by Greenwood told police that he “held me weirdly”, “had sharp knives” and “wasn’t a nice man”.

She also told police that Greenwood touched her both over and under her clothing, and that it happened “two or three times”, sometimes lasting for as long as one hour.

Greenwood had told her he liked her, though she said she didn’t understand what he meant by this, and said the swords on his bedroom wall made her scared.

When arrested, Greenwood denied the allegations put forward by the girls, but accepted possessing indecent images of children.

After his electronic devices were seized, further indecent images were found, including of children aged between six months and 14 years old engaging in sex activity.

Greenwood was also found to have made Internet searches, and downloaded files, indicative of an interest in child sex abuse.

Images were also recovered of the two girls he sexually abused, albeit they were not indecent.

A victim statement from one of the girl’s mothers read that she “felt like I’d been kicked in the stomach” when her daughter told her of the abuse she had endured.

“She has started to wet the bed again and have nightmares,” she added.

The mother said: “I have found myself in a state of negativity, where I question why I didn’t realise, and how I didn’t pick up the signs, making me feel like a bad mother.

“She can no longer play out like she used to. He has taken away what was our safe haven. It makes me feel so angry and sad that it’ll never be the same.”

A victim statement regarding the other girl said that she has “fully changed” since the incident, is “wetting the bed again”, wakes up with migraines and nausea, and struggles to sit still.

It added: “I feel her childhood innocence has gone. She has lost her spark.

“I fear for her mental health. I don’t think there is enough support out there for child victims of sexual abuse.”

Sentencing, Judge Parry also ordered the devices seized from Greenwood to be forfeited and destroyed.

The terms of his SHPO include prohibiting Greenwood from being left alone with a child younger than 16, and regulating his social media use.

Judge Parry told Greenwood that he had a “distorted view of young children”.