Dad caught with paedophile manual and 39,000 child sex abuse photos and films: Jason Church jailed

A father from Ceredigion has been jailed for possessing thousands of images and videos depicting child sexual abuse, as well as a "paedophile manual" containing detailed instructions on how to exploit children.

Jason Church, 40, was sentenced to 22 months in prison after pleading guilty to three counts of possession of indecent images and possession of a "paedophile manual". Police executed a search warrant at his home in Milford Haven in Pembrokeshire following intelligence about the downloading of indecent images.

A forensic examination of Church's Samsung phone and its SD memory card revealed over 39,000 images and videos of children being sexually abused, including 2,688 Category A images, which show the most serious kind of abuse. Some of the images depicted the attempted rape of a baby girl aged between two and four months old.

Investigators also uncovered a 170-page book titled "How to Practice Child Love", stored on the phone. This manual contained detailed step-by-step advice and instructions on how adults can find, groom, and have sex with children as young as two years old.

The court heard that the book argued against any moral objections to adult-child sexual relationships and claimed to be based on "advanced child psychology and research". It even offered tips on how men could target single mothers who are vulnerable and seeking a relationship.

Judge Huw Rees said viewing such material would be a "harrowing experience" for most people but for Church, it was a "source of a base, crude sexual preoccupation". He stated that the children in the images were real and being exploited to satisfy the "degenerate and lustful demands" of individuals like Church. The judge emphasized that Church posed a "risk and a danger to children".

Church will be registered as a sex offender for 10 years and subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same duration.