A 56-year-old man from Cardiff, Paul Meechan, has been sentenced to two years and eight months in prison for a series of disturbing offenses.

Meechan was arrested after being found to have been communicating with a 13-year-old boy and inciting him to engage in sexual activity. Police seized his electronic devices, which revealed a disturbing collection of images depicting child abuse, necrophilia, and extreme pornography.

The investigation uncovered images of children as young as seven months old being abused, as well as an image of a person having sex with a corpse. Meechan also admitted to distributing indecent images of children.

At his sentencing hearing at Newport Crown Court, Meechan pleaded guilty to multiple charges, including possession of category A, B, and C images, possession of extreme and prohibited images, distribution of category A and B images, sexual communication with a child, and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

In mitigation, the court heard that Meechan had entered guilty pleas at the earliest opportunity and had sought help from the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity focused on preventing child sex abuse. He also acknowledged his drug use at the time of the offenses and stated he was working to abstain from substances.

Judge Wayne Beard, in his sentencing remarks, expressed the revulsion that such images would elicit from right-thinking individuals. He also acknowledged Meechan's drug use but rejected his claim that he derived no sexual gratification from the images, stating that his interest stemmed from their illegality.

In addition to the prison sentence, Meechan was placed under a Sexual Harm Prevention Order and required to register as a sex offender for 10 years. This sentence aims to protect the public and deter future offenses.