A FORMER Newport councillor who shared images of young children being raped and his sexual fantasies with other paedophiles has been jailed.

Abdul-Majid Rahman was locked up for nearly four years after he pleaded guilty to a number of charges.

Jason Howells, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court that the defendant’s home on the city’s Corporation Road was raided by the police last October.

They found more than 100 child abuse films and pictures on an iPhone and Apple laptop with Rahman telling them he was “addicted to pornography”.

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Detectives later found that the defendant had shared child abuse images using Facebook.

South Wales Argus:

Abdul-Majid Rahman was first elected to Newport city council in May 2012 before he resigned after his arrest in October 2021

He had falsely claimed in online chats with other paedophiles he had been sexually abused as a boy and that he had sexually assaulted a child.

When he was interviewed by the police Rahman had denied he had any sexual interest in children.

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Rahman, 34, now of Marine Terrace, Porthcawl, admitted distributing 12 category A and one category B indecent images of children.

He also pleaded guilty to possession of 30 category A, five category B and 67 category C indecent images of children.

There were images of both boys and girls.

Mr Howells said the defendant was a man of previous good character with no convictions recorded against him.

It's clear you have a sexual interest in children

Anu Mohindru QC, representing Rahman, asked the court to give his client full credit for his early guilty pleas.

He added how the defendant had “fully cooperated with the police”.

The court was told Rahman said he had "struggled with his sexuality".

Mr Mohindru said the defendant told him: “This has now ruined my life, my career is finished and so likely is my marriage.

“I was providing for my family and now I have nothing.

“I do not know what I will do for a job, my options will be very restricted by virtue of the sex offender notification requirements.

“I cannot explain what has happened and why I did it.

“I accept the consequences are entirely my own fault.”

The Recorder of Cardiff, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke told Rahman: “There was discernible pain and distress suffered by some of the children depicted.

“You had an active involvement in a network or process that facilitated or commissioned the creation or sharing of indecent images of children and there a large number of different victims.

“It is clear you have a sexual interest in children.”

He was jailed for three years and eight months and told he would have to register as a sex offender for life.

When Rahman, who represented the Victoria ward for Labour, stepped down as a Newport city councillor last October he said he'd resigned “due to personal circumstances”.