A former bus company director has been found guilty of downloading thousands of indecent images of children as young as three years old.
John David Hulme , of Glan Seiont, Caernarfon, had denied nine charges of downloading and possessing more than 15,000 indecent images of children on various items of computer equipment police seized from his home and workplace.
During the four-day trial at Caernarfon Crown Court he claimed the vile images had been planted on his computers.
But after deliberating for more than five hours the jury of four men and eight women found him guilty on all charges.
The judge, Mr Recorder Timothy Petts, handed him a two-year and three month prison sentence.
The prison term is to be served consecutively to a six-year sentence Hulme is currently serving after being found guilty of fraud and false accounting at the Padarn Bus company in March this year.
The judge said: “But in March of this year a jury decided your success was built on a lie.
“You gave evidence that you had no interest in child pornography but the jury has found you guilty of possessing images some of which are sickening in nature.”
The 56-year-old was arrested by detectives in December 2012 after North Wales Police were alerted by the Child Exploitation and Online Protection unit that indecent images of children had been downloaded to an email address linked to Hulme’s home.
Hulme insisted he had no interest in indecent images stating himself to be a “happily married man”.
He told the jury he believes his computer equipment had been hacked and the material planted on it.
The judge added: “During the trial you sought to blame other people for placing the material on your computer equipment. These people had nothing to do with it.
“You sought to blame Darren and Shane Price of Padarn Bus claiming they were trying to force you out of the company. But some of these images were downloaded prior to you joining that company.”
Mathew Curtis, defending, conceded some of the images were of the worst kind and accepted there were a large number of them.
He said any jail sentence for these offences would make serving his current term more difficult.
In addition to the prison term, Hulme’s name will be on the sex offenders register for 10 years.
The judge also ordered that the computer equipment be forfeited.
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/former-director-gwynedd-bus-company-11836781
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