Craig Lee Roberts

Craig Lee Roberts, a 29-year-old university graduate from Trawler Road in Swansea Marina, was sentenced at Swansea Crown Court for possessing more than 8,000 indecent images on his mobile and computer hard drives, including 985 of the most extreme Category A type showing child sexual abuse. The case came to light when police executed a search warrant at his home, with his parents and partner present. Roberts had engaged in this behaviour since childhood, deriving sexual pleasure from material that the judge described as evoking only 'disgust and revulsion' in decent people.

His barrister, Nicholas Wragg, noted that since arrest, Roberts had worked with charities and a psychosexual therapist to address the roots of his long-term behaviour and understand the harm, now viewing the images as 'photographs of a crime scene'. He was 'devastated' by his actions. Judge Paul Thomas QC told him that people like Roberts 'fuel this evil trade', causing lifelong effects on abused children worldwide. South Wales Police led the raid that exposed the collection.

The presence of family during the search added to the personal devastation, underscoring the hidden nature of such addictions within communities.