August 2023

Paedophile caught after showing child sex abuse videos to man from ‘swingers’ website

A man showed videos of children being sexually abused to a fellow swinger he met on a sex website to “heighten the sexual pleasure” of their encounter.

The court heard some of these were Category A images Harris that featured girls as young as four being raped by men. Police also recovered images involving women performing sex acts with horses.

Former Admiral Insurance worker Stephen Harris met the man through the FabSwingers site, and during the course of their online chats asked him what was the “filthiest” pornography he had seen.

The pair then met up to engage in sexual activity during which the defendant showed the man videos on his phone of young girls being raped. The man fled the encounter and reported what he had seen to the police.

Sending Harris to prison a judge said he had no doubt the defendant derived sexual gratification from watching videos of children being sexually abused and tortured.

Alycia Carpanini, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that Harris and the witness in the case met on a website called FabSwingers where the defendant went by the name BenJones69.

The pair communicated online, and it was only later that they realised that they lived on the same street in Port Talbot.

During the course of their conversation Harris asked the man what was the “filthiest porn” he liked, and the defendant talked about boys and girls and said he was interested in extreme pornography.

The court heard the pair arranged to meet for sex at the defendant’s house on the morning of March 1 this year, and that while engaging in sexual activity Harris produced his phone, tapped a link, and handed the device to the man.

The videos which played showed young girls being raped by men. The witness got up at this point and left the property without saying anything to the defendant. Harris subsequently messaged the man and asked if “everything was good” – the witness made it clear to him that it was not okay.

The prosecutor said the witness continued the conversation to try to extract more information from Harris before going to the police, and during the conversation the defendant said he was part of a group of people – including a number of people who lived locally – who were interested in child sexual abuse imagery

The witness reported the incident to police that morning, and 41-year-old Harris was arrested at his house later that same day on suspicion of possessing indecent images.

A number of electronic items including a phone, iPad, laptop computer, X-Box games console, and Garmin smart watch were seized and sent for a digital forensic examination.

Officers found a total of 180 indecent images on the Samsung phone including 69 of Category A showing the most extreme kinds of sexual abuse.

The court heard some of these Category A images Harris had featured girls as young as four being raped by men. Police also recovered images involving women performing sex acts with horses.

In his police interview Harris admitted receiving indecent images via the Telegram messaging app and then sharing them with others.

He said he was suffering with depression and was looking for companionship, and that communicating with other people on the app was his way of coping. Harris also said he would experiment with drugs and watching child pornography.

Stephen Harris, of St Mary Street, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to possessing indecent images of Categories A, B and C, distributing images of Category A – the videos he showed to the witness – and possession of extreme pornography when he appeared in the dock for sentencing. He has no previous convictions.

Recorder David Harris said it was clear that in order to “heighten the sexual experience” of the encounter with the witness the defendant had shown him videos of children being sexually abused and tortured.

He said he had no doubt the defendant got “sexual gratification” from viewing such images but said the witness had been “shocked and repulsed” by what he had see on the screen and had reported the matter to police.

With a one-third discount for his guilty pleas and in accordance with the sentencing guidelines the defendant was sentenced to two years in prison.

He will serve up to half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community. Harris was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order.