Aaron Hughes

Aaron Hughes, a 32-year-old from Roath, Cardiff, was sentenced at Cardiff Crown Court in May 2014 to life imprisonment with a minimum term of 12 years for two counts of rape, possessing indecent images, and breaching a sex offenders prevention order. He drugged a three-year-old boy handed to him by babysitter Claire Semmens and raped the sedated toddler twice, filming the assaults on his mobile phone to rewatch on his computer. Police discovered the footage during a routine check for breaching a court order by downloading child pornography.

Judge Phillip Richards described the offences as 'genuinely horrendous', stating it 'almost defies belief' that anyone would perpetrate such acts on an innocent young child. Hughes was placed on licence for life, barred from working with children, and required to sign the sex offenders register indefinitely. The case involved horrific sexual exploitation of a vulnerable child, shocking the court and public.

As reported by Wales Online, this incident exemplified the depravity among registered sex offenders in Wales, with statistics showing a 60% increase over eight years to over 4,700 by 2018.