Caernarfon,North Wales - Gwynedd bus firm boss has jail sentence extended after being convicted of child porn offences

Published date: 05 September 2016 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
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A former director of a Gwynedd bus firm already serving six years jail for fraud has had an extra 27 months added after being convicted of child porn offences.

Ex-school governor David Hulme, of Glan Seiont, Caernarfon, had told a Caernarfon crown court jury he was unaware of the thousands of images stored on various items of computer equipment he owned or used and blamed other people.

The 56-year-old was formerly managing director of Llanberis-based Padarn Bus and was arrested at his work in December 2012 after indecent images were downloaded to an email address linked to him.

He denied eight charges of making indecent images of children and a charge of possessing 15,000 of them. The jury convicted him.

Recorder Timothy Petts said until 2012 Hulme had been highly thought of in the community as a leading local businessman and a school governor. But the judge told him :”That business success was built upon a lie. The jury determined your personal life was built on a lie as well."

Recorder Petts said :”You blamed, before and at trial, people who had absolutely nothing to do with this.”

The judge said Hulme must register as a sex offender for ten years.

Defence barrister Matthew Curtis said Hulme had been told he would have to serve the remainder of his sentence on the vulnerable prisoners’ wing in jail.

Hulme had claimed images were “planted” by someone else.

But the prosecution said his fingerprint password was needed to gain entry to one computer and an internet router was accessed from his home and work.

Opening the case, prosecuting barrister Sion ap Mihangel said Hulme’s home and work were searched after police received a tip from the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre that child porn had been uploaded to a Microsoft Skydrive account. Work equipment and a PC at his home were seized.

“Significantly, when he was asked whether or not he owned a laptop he said he didn’t. His wife, however, who was at home at the time of the search, said he did in fact own a laptop,” counsel said. “In the boot of his VW Passat a laptop and USB stick were recovered and these were significant findings.”

Mr ap Mihangel said indecent images were recovered. They were also on an Apple device for which the defendant provided the wrong security code

see-http://www.northwaleschronicle.co.uk/news/166263/gwynedd-bus-firm-boss-has-jail-sentence-extended-after-being-convicted-of-child-porn-offences.aspx