Paedophile spared jail after delay

A SELF-CONFESSED paedophile who shared images of young girls being raped has avoided an immediate prison sentence because police took so long to charge him.

- JASON EVANS

Despite Gethin Samuel making admissions to officers on the day he was arrested, it took police almost three and a half years to charge him.

A judge at Swansea Crown Court said had the defendant been dealt with in a timely fashion, he could not have avoided prison.

Dean Pulling, prosecuting, told the court that on February 8, 2022, police executed a search warrant at the defendant's home in Llanelli and seized a number of his electronic devices, including an iPhone.

While they were doing that, Samuel told officers he assumed they were at his house because of his activities on the messaging app Telegram, where he said a “Portuguese man” had been sending him images.

The court heard a triage examination of the iPhone showed the presence of indecent images, and the defendant was arrested and taken into custody.