Ian Spencer Mitchell

Ian Spencer Mitchell, a 59- or 61-year-old man from Swansea, has a long and troubling history of sexual offending against children, spanning nearly 25 years. His criminal record includes multiple convictions for possessing, making, and distributing indecent images of children, as well as direct sexual assaults. Mitchell's latest offences involved breaching a sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) by setting up a secret Facebook account and capturing an image of a pre-pubescent girl in swimwear on his phone, which he subsequently deleted.

The court at Swansea Crown Court heard that Mitchell was released from his previous prison sentence on 16 August 2023. Shortly after, on 26 October 2023, he had 'e-safe' monitoring software installed on his mobile phone at Swansea Central police station to track his device activity remotely. Within hours of activation, police detected an 'image of significant concern' – a photograph of a young girl in a swimsuit that Mitchell had taken. The following week, officers visited his flat and confirmed the image had been deleted, while also discovering he had signed up to Facebook, in direct violation of his SHPO.

Upon arrest, Mitchell admitted to taking the photo, claiming he found a SIM card while helping his partner move house, inserted it into his television, and photographed the image that appeared on screen before panicking and flushing the SIM down the toilet. He also professed ignorance of the Facebook prohibition. Prosecuting barrister Tom Scapens outlined Mitchell's extensive prior convictions, which began in 1999 with an 18-month sentence for gross indecency with a child, involving the sexual assault of a young girl and exposing her to pornography while masturbating. Subsequent offences included failing to register as a sex offender, possession of indecent images in 2005 leading to an extended sentence as a dangerous offender, and further imprisonments in 2011 and 2012 for similar crimes.

• In 2015, Mitchell received 40 months for online chats about sexual abuse and distributing Category A indecent images depicting serious child sexual abuse and rape.
• While incarcerated at HMP Channings Wood in 2017, he was caught with newspaper cuttings of young girls in swimsuits and nativity plays, some superimposed onto pornographic images, plus clippings about child murder cases, resulting in another extended sentence.
• In 2018, police discovered over 4,000 indecent images on his phone and iCloud, along with sexualised WhatsApp conversations where he posed as an 11- to 13-year-old girl; his phone passcode was 'Little Girls ****'. This led to a two-year custodial sentence with an extended licence.
• He breached the SHPO again in 2021 by purchasing an internet-enabled games console, initially lying about its origin.

Mitchell's defence barrister, Nicola Powell, argued that he voluntarily installed the e-safe software to stay safe and deleted the photo to curb his 'urges'. She emphasised his desire for help to manage these impulses. However, Recorder Aidan Eardley KC noted Mitchell's inability to comply with court orders, having breached SHPOs four times previously, and described him as having 'serious problems' with urges he struggles to resist. With a one-third discount for guilty pleas to two counts of breaching the SHPO, Mitchell was sentenced to 10 months' imprisonment on 30 November 2023. He will serve up to half in custody before release on licence, with the SHPO remaining in force.

This case, reported by Wales Online and based on proceedings at Swansea Crown Court, underscores Mitchell's pattern of reoffending despite multiple interventions. South Wales Police were involved in the monitoring and arrest.