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Former Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

He admitted all charges put before him at Aberystwyth Magistrates Court.

The court heard Thomas admitted making more than 500 indecent photographs of children and more than 70 films.

He was bailed on condition that he surrendered his passport with police and will have no unsupervised contact with children under 16.

He will appear before Mold Magistrates court on 31 October while pre-sentence reports are being prepared.

Thomas quit the Senedd and his party after being arrested in July.

Helen Mary Jones, who was next on Plaid's regional list for the Mid and West Wales seat, returned to the assembly to replace Mr Thomas in August. </s> Former Assembly Member Simon Thomas has pleaded guilty to making indecent images and videos of children.

The former Plaid Cymru politician appeared at Aberystwyth Magistrates' Court where he admitted three counts of making indecent images of children.

The court heard 150 pictures and videos were found at the home of the former Welsh Assembly member in July and were in the highest category of illegal images.

The 54-year-old pleaded guilty to making 94 still and 56 moving images of category A, 87 still and 16 moving images of category B, and 354 still and five moving images of category C.

Thomas resigned in July from his role as a Plaid Cymru Assembly Member for Mid and West Wales.

He lives in Aberystwyth with his wife and two children.

District Judge Gwyn Jones warned Thomas "all sentencing options are open" before he adjourned the hearing for a pre-sentence report.

Thomas was ordered to surrender his passport to police and was prohibited from having unsupervised contact with children below the age of 16.

District Judge Jones said: "The fact the court has adjourned today for a report should not be taken as an indication of any predetermined sentence.

"This includes custody or the case being sent to the crown court."

Thomas, from Penparcau, Aberystwyth, was granted conditional bail until he appears at Mold Magistrates' Court on October 31.

He resigned from Plaid Cymru and from his role as the Welsh Assembly member for Mid and West Wales after he was arrested in July.

Thomas was also MP for Ceredigion between 2000 and 2005. </s> Image caption Simon Thomas arriving at court on Wednesday

Former Plaid Cymru AM Simon Thomas has pleaded guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.

He admitted all charges put before him at Aberystwyth Magistrates Court.

The court heard Thomas admitted making more than 500 indecent photographs of children and more than 70 films.

He was bailed on condition that he surrendered his passport with police and will have no unsupervised contact with children under 16.

He will appear before Mold Magistrates court on 31 October while pre-sentence reports are being prepared.

Thomas quit the Senedd and his party after being arrested in July.

Helen Mary Jones, who was next on Plaid's regional list for the Mid and West Wales seat, returned to the assembly to replace Mr Thomas in August.

An NSPCC Cymru spokesman said: "Thomas has admitted very serious offences and by accumulating this vile material has helped fuel the demand for more to be created and for more harm to be inflicted on vulnerable, young people." </s> Former football coach Barry Bennell has been found guilty of multiple counts of indecent assault and male rape after a month-long trial.

Bennell had denied 48 offences, including indecent assault, attempted buggery and buggery, relating to 11 complainants aged between eight and 15.

He was convicted of 38 charges, and a judge directed not guilty verdicts on three counts of indecent assault.

Jurors will resume deliberations on seven outstanding charges tomorrow.

The incidents happened between 1979 and 1990.

Bennell, 64, was "a child molester on an industrial scale" who had a "power hold" over the complainants, a prosecutor told the court.

The jury was directed to return not guilty verdicts in respect of three of the counts of indecent assault because there was no evidence.

Bennell was convicted of two counts of indecently assaulting one young boy between 1979 and 1982.

He was found guilty of three counts of indecent assault and two counts of buggery against a second complainant and four counts of indecent assault against a third complainant.

The jury found Bennell guilty of four counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted buggery against a fourth complainant and four counts of indecent assault against a fifth complainant.

He was found guilty of three counts of buggery against a sixth complainant and four counts of indecent assault and one count of attempted buggery against a seventh complainant.

He was convicted of two counts of indecent assault against a eighth complainant, one count of indecent assault and two counts of buggery against a ninth complainant and three counts of indecent assault against an 10th complainant.

The jury is still deliberating on four counts involving an 11th complainant and three other counts involving other complainants.

A jury of six women and five men returned their verdicts this afternoon after being sent out to deliberate on Thursday morning.

During the trial, Liverpool Crown Court heard Bennell compared to the Child Catcher from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, as he invited boys to his house where he had arcade games, a pool table, videos and exotic pets including a puma and a monkey.

In his closing speech, Nicholas Johnson QC, prosecuting, said: "We suggest Mr Bennell is a child molester on an industrial scale and that's why he went to these lengths to get so many lads round to his house."

The 11 complainants, as well as witnesses who Bennell has admitted abusing, gave evidence about abuse by the former Crewe Alexandra coach, who was described as having a "power hold" over them.

The court heard when he was a scout for Manchester City he was treated like "God" at the club's Maine Road ground.

One of Bennell's victims, who he had pleaded guilty to abusing in 1998, said he knew of four men who had been coached by Bennell, including former Wales manager Gary Speed, who had gone on to take their own lives.

But the jury was later told there was no evidence to link their deaths to Bennell.

In transcripts of police interviews which were read in court, Bennell, who has changed his name to Richard Jones, told the police about his grooming process and abuse of boys, but claimed the complainants in the case were "jumping on the bandwagon" following publicity.

The former coach, who appeared via videolink from prison for the hearings, chose not to appear in the witness box and no evidence was called by the defence.

In her closing speech, Eleanor Laws QC, defending, described Bennell as a "sitting target" and asked jurors to put their "understandable potential revulsion" aside when considering verdicts.

She said: "The defendant is a known target and he coached these boys.

"They know when making allegations, whether truthful or not, that they are making allegations against a convicted paedophile." </s> One of Britain's most prolific paedophiles has been jailed for 32 years for blackmailing vulnerable victims into carrying out depraved sexual and physical acts.

Cambridge graduate Matthew Falder admitted 137 offences against 46 male and female victims after duping them into thinking he was a depressed female artist called Liz, seeking nude photos for his artwork.

The depraved paedophile ordered one girl to eat dog food after blackmailing her online.

The 29-year-old was sentenced today at Birmingham Crown Court.

Sentencing "warped and sadistic" Falder for "a tale of ever increasing depravity", Judge Philip Parker QC said: "As for your equally extraordinary sexual offending - no-one who knew you above ground had an inkling of what you were doing below the surface."

Branding him an "internet highwayman", he added: "You wanted to assume total control over your victims.

"Your behaviour was cunning, persistent, manipulative and cruel."

For the victims, he said: "The damage is on-going for these individuals. It will never end, knowing the abuse caused by you still exists in other unknown persons' computers."

The judge, who also concluded Falder was a dangerous offender, added: "These sentencing remarks underplay your relentless, obsessive desire to continue committing offences."

Falder, a former post-doctoral researcher in geophysics at the University of Birmingham, was caught by an international inquiry led by the National Crime Agency and arrested last June after after three traumatised victims, who were tricked into sending him humiliating images, attempted to end their own lives.

A previous hearing at Birmingham Crown Court was told Falder coerced male and female victims into producing "increasingly severe self-generated indecent images of themselves, the focus of these images being to humiliate and degrade".

Opening the facts of the case against Falder, prosecutor Ruona Iguyovwe told the earlier hearing many of the images were then distributed on so-called "hurtcore" websites showing material depicting sexual and physical abuse.

Upon his arrest, Dr Matthew Falder himself described the catalogue of offences he faced as the "rap sheet from hell". The case is thought to be among those with the highest number of charges brought against a single defendant, with Falder admitting 137 offences and a further 51 lying on file under a plea agreement. These are some of the charges he pleaded guilty to: Arranging or facilitating the sexual exploitation of a child x one Causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity x three Causing or inciting the sexual exploitation of a child x 20 Distribute indecent images of a child, conspiracy to x two :: Distributing indecent images of children x 12 Encouraging or assisting the commission of offences of taking, making or distributing indecent images x six Intentionally encouraging or assisting an offence of rape x three Intentionally encouraging or assisting of offence of sexual activity with a child family member x one Participating in the activities of an organised crime group x three Possession of indecent images of children x one

Falder, who treated victims both as sex objects and as objects of derision, posted on one forum "100 things we want to see at least once".

In remarks in that post, he suggested "a young girl being used as a dartboard", production of a video depicting a child's bones being "slowly and deliberately broken", and the abuse of "a paralysed child".

It also emerged during the earlier hearing Falder initially duped victims into providing images by posing as a female artist who wanted to turn them into life drawings.

The operation to catch Falder, who used specialist software to hide his online accounts, was aided by GCHQ, the United States Homeland Security department and law enforcement bodies in Israel, Slovenia, Australia and New Zealand.

Falder, of Harborne Park Road, Birmingham, had been warned he could face a life sentence for the offences, committed over an eight-year period. </s> A scientist and university academic described as a “warped and sadistic” paedophile has been jailed for 32 years after blackmailing a string of vulnerable victims, many teenagers, into carrying out depraved sexual and physical acts.

Matthew Falder, 29, a Cambridge graduate, admitted 137 offences against 46 victims, male and female, including blackmail, voyeurism, making indecent images of children and encouraging the rape of a child.



He was arrested following an international inquiry led by the National Crime Agency. At least three traumatised victims attempted to end their own lives after being tricked into sending him humiliating images of themselves.



Falder, a former post-doctoral researcher in geophysics at the University of Birmingham, committed the offences over eight years and never physically met his victims, instead blackmailing them over the internet. He duped many into sending naked images of themselves by posing as a female artist seeking photos to turn into life drawings.



In reality, he was a member of several “virtual communities” of abusers on the dark web, distributing images on so-called “hurtcore” websites, where images of violent sexual and physical abuse are shared, and where he had a membership level of “rapist”.



He forced one victim to film herself licking toilet seats, a used tampon and eating dog food; another into eating his faeces and drinking urine. He also encouraged the rape of a young child, the court had heard. He had set up hidden cameras in publicly accessible toilets and at his parents’ home, catching unsuspecting victims on film then blackmailing them and trading images online with others.



Using his ““evilmind” and “666devil” accounts on encrypted dark web forums, he coerced, controlled and ultimately devastated his victims.



Judge Philip Parker QC, sentencing at Birmingham crown court, described him as an “internet highwayman” who was “warped and sadistic” and whose behaviour was “cunning, persistent, manipulative and cruel”.



“No one who knew you above ground had an inkling of what you were doing below the surface,” he said.



Falder, brought up in Cheshire, had excelled at school and emerged from Cambridge University with a master’s degree and PhD before becoming a lecturer at Birmingham University. One former tutor described him as “one of the finest students” whose work had “international impact”. He had dynamic social magnetism, was extremely talented and was the life and soul of the party, the court had heard.

Matt Sutton, senior investigating officer at the National Crime Agency, said after sentencing: “In more than 30 years of law enforcement I’ve never come across an offender whose sole motivation was to inflict such profound anguish and pain. Matthew Falder revelled in it.”



Falder’s is the first conviction of a “hurtcore” paedophile by British police. Described as the “worst of the worst”, hurtcore is a subculture of paedophilia, which, said the NCA investigator Matthew Long, aims to “hurt the individual to their very core”.



The NCA worked with UK police, GCHQ, US homeland security, the Australian federal police and Europol, and needed up to 100 investigators to find, track and detain Falder, who had evaded detection for almost four years.



Ruona Iguyovwe, of the Crown Prosecution Services, said Falder had shown no sympathy or basic humanity towards his victims. When one victim told him they were thinking of “ending it all”, he told them the images would still be circulated “so what good is that going to be to you”, she said.



One of his victims, duped by Falder after advertising herself as a babysitter on Gumtree, was bombarded with messages from him daily over two months. Speaking anonymously, she said she could not concentrate at school, was scared to go out and had been too ashamed to tell anyone. His actions had led to the total breakdown of relationships with her family and friends, and left her scared of meeting new people. </s> This is the moment one of Britain's worst-ever paedophiles gets the knock on the door he had been dreading.

Cambridge University graduate Matthew Falder, 29, prowled the internet anonymously, blackmailing scores of children and adults into committing obscene acts on camera.

He then shared the footage, which included incestual child rape, on dark web "hurtcore" sites, dedicated to paedophile, rape and humiliation videos.

"What have I done... What am I supposed to have done?" he says revealingly, as police swooped on his bedroom in Birmingham – the nerve centre of his depraved operation.

He has been jailed for 32 years at Birmingham Crown Court after pleading guilty to 137 charges. Another 51 charges remain on file.

The 29-year-old geophysicist posed as a struggling female artist on Gumtree, asking teenagers and adults to send him naked pictures of themselves for money.

Once he had obtained these photos, he threatened to send them to his victims' loved ones, workplaces and schools, blackmailing them into performing ever more obscene acts.

A few of his victims were brave enough to approach the police prompting an investigation by the National Crime Agency (NCA).

But computer whizz Falder had carefully hidden behind around 70 almost impenetrable online identities. His user names on illicit dark websites included "evilmind" and "666devil".

He made teenage girls eat dog food naked, lick toilet seats and write 'I am a sl*t' in lipstick on their bodies. But perhaps his most sinister act was blackmailing a father into raping his two-year-old son.

"It is a tale of ever-increasing depravity," said Judge Philip Parker at sentencing. "The effects on the girls, women and men were devastating.

"The damage is ongoing for these individuals. It will never end. Time and again people begged you to stop. Time and again you ramped up the pressure," he added.

In an email to a 15-year-old girl, Falder wrote: "I wanted to offer you two choices.

"A) You take some more photos for me... slightly different from before.

"B) I get upset, and instead of sending money, I send printouts of all the pictures you have done to your address, at many points in the future (in envelopes that your mother is likely to open)."

Falder boasted that he would never be caught and believed he was always one step ahead of law enforcement. However, after a long and arduous investigation, NCA experts were able to crack his identity.

The agency released footage of the moment officers swooped on his sadistic lair after he was sentenced on 19 February.

Matt Sutton, NCA senior investigating officer, said: "In more than 30 years of law enforcement I've never come across an offender whose sole motivation was to inflict such profound anguish and pain. Matthew Falder revelled in it.

"I've also never known such an extremely complex investigation with an offender who was technologically savvy and able to stay hidden in the darkest recesses of the dark web.

"This investigation represents a watershed moment," Sutton continued. "Falder is not alone so we will continue to develop and deliver our capabilities nationally for the whole law enforcement system to stop offenders like him from wrecking innocent lives.

"I commend the victims for their bravery and I urge anyone who is being abused online to report it. There is help available." </s> One of Britain's most prolific paedophiles, who blackmailed a string of vulnerable victims including a girl who was ordered to eat dog food, has been jailed for 32 years.

Dr Matthew Falder has admitted 137 offences, including blackmail, voyeurism and encouraging the rape of a child, relating to 46 complainants after being caught by an international inquiry led by the UK National Crime Agency.

The 29-year-old was arrested in June last year after three traumatised victims, who were tricked into sending him humiliating images, attempted to end their own lives.

Sentencing "warped and sadistic" Falder for "a tale of ever increasing depravity", Judge Philip Parker QC said: "As for your equally extraordinary sexual offending - no-one who knew you above ground had an inkling of what you were doing below the surface."

Branding him an "internet highwayman", he added: "You wanted to assume total control over your victims.

"Your behaviour was cunning, persistant, manipulative and cruel."

For the victims, he said: "The damage is on-going for these individuals it will never end, knowing the abuse caused by you still exists in other unknown persons' computers."

The judge, who also concluded Falder was a dangerous offender, added: "These sentencing remarks underplay your relentless, obsessive desire to continue committing offences."

A previous hearing was told Falder coerced male and female victims into producing "increasingly severe self-generated indecent images of themselves, the focus of these images being to humiliate and degrade".

Falder forced one victim to film herself licking toilet seats, a used tampon and eating dog food, and set up secret cameras in bathrooms to record women and girls naked.

Another was blackmailed into eating his faeces and drinking urine, while the 29-year-old also encouraged the rape of a boy, aged two, by his own father.

He also set up hidden cameras in publicly accessible toilets and at his parents' home, catching his unsuspecting victims on film, and using the footage to blackmail - and trade with others online.

Opening the facts of the case against Falder, prosecutor Ruona Iguyovwe previously told the court that many of the images were then distributed on so-called "hurtcore" websites on the dark web, showing material depicting sexual and physical abuse.

Falder, who treated victims both as sex objects and as objects of derision, posted on one forum "100 things we want to see at least once".

In remarks in that post, he suggested "a young girl being used as a dartboard", production of a video depicting a child's bones being "slowly and deliberately broken", and the abuse of "a paralysed child".

It also emerged during the earlier hearing that Falder initially duped victims into providing images by posing as a female artist who wanted to turn them into life drawings.

Prosecutors said Falder was also a member of several "virtual communities" of abusers, and in one such forum on the so-called dark web, he had a "membership rank level of 'Rapist'".

One of his victims, speaking anonymously after his sentencing, described how his abuse had led to the breakdown of "all relationships" in her life, and how she was now "scared to meet people".

The operation to catch Falder, who used specialist software to hide his online accounts, was aided by GCHQ, the United States Homeland Security Department and law enforcement bodies in Israel, Slovenia, Australia and New Zealand.

Falder, from Birmingham, committed the offences over an eight-year period and never physically met any of his victims, but instead manipulated them from afar by duping them into providing nude images and personal details.

On his arrest, the former post-doctoral researcher in geophysics at the University of Birmingham told officers "what is it I've done", before correcting himself and adding "supposed to have done".

He then quipped that the list of suspected offences sounded "like the rap sheet from hell". </s> TWO teenagers have been jailed for their involvement in an early morning incident outside a city nightclub which ended with a car hitting a crowd of pedestrians.

Benjamin Thomas, 19, and Callum Banton, 19, both of Newport, appeared in Cardiff Crown Court today after pleading guilty to affray.

The court heard a fight broke out at around 5.30am on the morning of Sunday, April 29, outside the Courtyard night club on Cambrian Road in the city centre.

Today, Judge Jeremy Jenkins made it clear that neither defendant could have foresaw the incident would end with a car ploughing into pedestrians but added that it was their actions which "precipitated" the fight.

Prosecutor Jason Howells showed the court CCTV of Banton “squaring up” with others on the crowded street, before a large brawl broke out involving another group of men.

“And then it’s Thomas that gets involved,” added Mr Howells.

The court heard that both defendants left the scene after a car hit a crowd of pedestrians, leaving four people seriously injured.

Thomas had a number of previous convictions, including for dishonest offences, assault, dangerous driving, and possession of controlled drugs, the court was told.

Banton had one previous conviction for conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.

In mitigation for Thomas, who appeared on video link from HMP Swansea, Gareth Williams said that the defendant had used his time in custody to reflect on his life.

“His situation has changed dramatically in that he now has a child, who he has only seen once after his girlfriend visited him.

“He is determined to get his life back on track and even if he gets an immediate custodial sentence he will start this process as soon as he is released.”

Harry Baker, speaking in mitigation for Banton, who appeared in court with his mother and was visibly upset throughout the proceedings, spoke of his client's plans to attend college in September to start a carpentry course.

He said: "This would be a big step in terms of his rehabilitation. I would ask your honour to make it possible for him to take part in that course.

"If your honour is against that I ask you to keep the sentence as short as possible.”

But today, addressing both defendants, Judge Jeremy Jenkins said:

“Sadly this is another example of drunken young people in public engaging in violent behaviour.

"What happened thereafter was not your meaning, but it was your actions jointly that precipitated this fight.

"This was a serious case of public disorder precipitated by your actions.

“It seems to me that I would be failing in my duty were I not to say publicly that your actions go well beyond the custody threshold.

“Only a custodial sentence in your cases can be appropriate for your actions.”

Sentencing Thomas to 11 months and Banton to 10 months, the judge added that both defendants would spend half of their sentence in a young offenders institution before being released on licence.

McCauley Cox, of John Ireland Close, Ringland, is to stand trial accused of attempted murder. He denies the charges and will appear in court on October 15.

Detective Chief Inspector Nicholas Wilkie, of Gwent Police, said: “We welcome the sentences handed to Callum Banton and Benjamin Thomas.
Former Member of Parliament and Member of the National Assembly for Wales, Simon Thomas, pleads guilty to three counts of making indecent images of children.