Jailed: Ex-Wem pub landlord shared indecent images and made explicit boasts
A former landlord of a Wem pub has been jailed for three years after he admitted possessing and distributing indecent images of children and making explicit boasts about indecent acts on a gay dating app.
Wayne Ford, 36, currently of no fixed abode, was the landlord of the Hawkestone Arms pub in New Street at the time of the offences.
He had pleaded guilty at a previous hearing to seven offences, including six of possessing or distributing indecent images of children as well as one charge of publishing an obscene article.
Appearing at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Thursday for sentencing, the court heard that Ford's offences related to two separate time periods.
Caroline Harris KC, prosecuting, said the initial investigation into Ford's online activities arose in 2020 after the United States' National Center for Missing & Exploited Children contacted the UK's National Crime Agency, which then contacted West Mercia Police.
She said Ford had logged onto an internet platform called Men's Chat, where he used the username 33hungrypervUK and boasted to other users about sexually abusing babies.
"His internet activity was traced to Hawkestone Arms pub in Wem," said Ms Harris.
"A search warrant was issued in September 2020. The defendant was present and confirmed at the scene he had used the username and had looked at child abuse images."
She added that officers found a number of chats on his laptop, which was seized, and subsequently images and videos of extreme pornography and child abuse were found by police officers on the machine.
"It was from this laptop that images had also been distributed," added Ms Harris.
She said that while under investigation for the 2020 offences, Ford then committed a second set of offences in March 2021 on the gay dating app Grindr.
She told the court that unbeknown to Ford, his conversations on Grindr, in which he was discussing child abuse, had been with an undercover police officer.
Ford was arrested in April and further images of child abuse were found on his phone.
He admitted having the conversations on Grindr but said it was "fantasy chat" and denied ever abusing children.
Judge Peter Barrie accepted that Ford's boasts of abusing very young children were "a fiction" but in sentencing the former pub landlord, he said: "Every image of a child that is circulated on the internet derives from a child being gravely abused in the making of it.
"In this case we are concerned with children of a very young age being abused in very serious ways.
"Everybody who downloads images helps keep the business going. More than that, you joined in with it by distributing them to other people who shared your interests."
The judge said this aggravating factor added a "new level of seriousness".
"In addition, that there are four charges for making and downloading the images on your computer," said Judge Barrie. "A serious aggravating feature that the children were so young."
The judge added that another aggravating factor was that Ford continued committing offences in 2021 while under investigation for similar offences the previous year.
He jailed Ford to 28 months in prison for the 2020 offences and six months in prison for the offences for the 2021 offences, and said the sentences would run consecutively, meaning he would not be eligible for release until he had served half his 36 month sentence.
Ford was also given a sexual harm prevention order that will restrict his internet use after his release for prison.
Following Ford's sentencing, Detective Inspector Matt McNelis of West Mercia Police, said: “These are vile crimes that perpetuate the suffering of child victims here and around the world.
"Often these images are of children being raped and tortured. I would like to compliment the Online CSE Team based in Shrewsbury for their determination in bringing Ford to justice.
"It is heartening for the team and for the community as a whole to see a custodial sentence handed down together with a sexual harm prevention order which will further mitigate risk when Ford is released.”
