A MAN who shared a child abuse film with fellow paedophiles was also caught with “sadistic” images showing depraved acts committed against babies and young children.

David Owen from Caerphilly was part of an online chat group when he passed around a category A indecent video showing a five-year-old being sexually assaulted.

Category A images depict the worse kind of child abuse.

Owen had also been talking about the sexual abuse of children with other members of the group.

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Police found nearly 100 indecent images on the defendant’s iPhone when they raided the 41-year-old’s home address.

Alexander Greenwood, prosecuting, told Cardiff Crown Court they discovered 31 category A, 24 category B and 39 category C images on Owen’s iPhone.

The victims were aged between six months old and 10.

Owen admitted distributing an indecent image of a child, possessing a prohibited image of a child and three counts of possessing an indecent image of a child.

The defendant, of Bryn-Rhedyn, was also found with bestiality images of adults having sex with animals.

He further admitted possessing an extreme pornographic image.

The offences were committed between November 11, 2022 and December 20, 2022.

Owen, represented by Ben Waters, was a man of previous good character with no convictions recorded against him.

The court was asked to give the defendant the appropriate credit for his guilty pleas.

Judge Carl Harrison said to Owen: “You had sadistic material which showed the victims suffering, some of them as young as six months old.

“Your offending is further aggravated by the fact that you were part of an active network.”

He jailed the defendant for two years and two months and told him he would have to register as a sex offender for the next 10 years.

Owen was also made the subject of a sexual harm prevention for 10 years and ordered to pay a £228 victim surcharge following his release form prison.