Leeds child-abuse 'trader' had conversations on Twitter and KIK with paedophiles about their vile fantasies
A paedophile who “traded” vile images and videos of children being abused with other perverts also engaged in conversations about their sick fantasies.
Thomas Kelly was jailed this week at Leeds Crown Court after he was caught uploading category A images - some of the most hideous abuse photos and videos - and telling other like-minded people about his preferences for young girls.
It was heard that the 30-year-old had organised the images into files on his computer and had multiple conversations online in a group which had been named “rape chat”. They even discussed fantasies about celebrity children.
Prosecutor Jessica Lister told the court that uploaded images had been traced to Kelly’s IP address and so police went to his home in April 2022. They seized a mobile phone, sim card, a laptop, a hard drive and a memory card. Following forensic analysis, they found 95 images and videos. This included seven category A, 14 in category B, 66 in category C and eight prohibited images of children.
He had been collecting over a nine-month period, Miss Lister said. The explicit conversations with other paedophiles were mainly over Twitter and KIK, with Kelly offering the images to others in return for any they had.
He said he would take any aged “nine-plus” and said he had images of children as young as eight. He even made contact with a 13-year-old boy and sent him a picture of his penis, with the boy sending one in return.
Kelly also said he was planning on setting up his own group and invite other paedophiles to share material and fantasies.
Following his arrest, he gave a prepared statement and then gave no-comment answers. He later admitted three counts of distributing indecent images, three counts of possessing images in category A, B and C, and possessing prohibited images. He has no previous convictions.
Having pleaded guilty, he then claimed he was drunk each time he downloaded the images and could not remember - a basis that was not pursued and that Judge Ray Singh dismissed as “nonsense”.
Mitigating, Sam Roxborough conceded there had been a “level of minimisation” from Kelly, but said it was “not uncommon” for paedophiles to struggle admitting their wrongdoing.
He said that Kelly had suffered abuse himself having been brought up in foster care, and said that probation said they could work with him in the community, so he could be spared custody.
But Judge Singh gave him 27 months’ jail and said: “It became apparent you had shared those vile images along with conversations about child sex abuse. You expressed your interest.
“It was not an isolated incident. You would have continued unabated if you had not been arrested. You boasted that you had ‘child porn’ and if anyone wanted it. You felt disgusted when nobody had returned images back to you.”
Referring to Kelly’s initial claims about memory loss due to drinking, he told him: “It’s complete nonsense I’m afraid. It perhaps shows the lack of remorse on your part, that may feel it’s okay to carry on in this way.”
He put him on the sex offender register for 10 years, and also gave him a 10-year sexual harm prevention order (SHPO) to limit his internet use.