DANIELE CALIMERA CAUGHT WITH CHILD PORN IN BUTETOWN, CARDIFF

In November 2018, a disturbing case emerged involving Daniele Calimera, a music teacher based in Butetown, Cardiff, who was found to possess a large collection of indecent images of children. Calimera, who had previously gained recognition as a musician in Italy, was working in Wales at the time of his arrest. Authorities uncovered over 2,600 illicit images and videos of minors on his personal laptop, which he had used to conduct searches with terms such as 'toddler'.

The police executed a search warrant at Calimera’s residence in Ffordd Garthorne, Butetown, Cardiff, shortly after 7 a.m. on June 2. During the search, the 31-year-old was visibly emotional and admitted to the officers that the laptop belonged to him. When questioned about the content, Calimera claimed, “It’s just curiosity. I don’t do it all the time. It was a moment of weakness.”

Prosecutor David Pugh detailed the findings to Cardiff Crown Court, revealing that forensic analysis of the seized laptop uncovered a staggering 2,642 indecent images and seven videos depicting children in various states of abuse. Among these, 461 were classified as the most serious Category A images, including one that depicted a five-year-old girl. The videos included five Category A clips, with one particularly disturbing footage lasting 38 minutes, showing children being raped.

The forensic examiner also identified 330 images in Category B, 1,851 in Category C, and two videos in Category C. Additionally, the investigation uncovered peer-to-peer file sharing software, eMule, with filenames such as “11-year-old Ukrainian pre-teen lesbians,” indicating the extent of the illicit material stored on his device. The search terms used by Calimera included words like 'toddler', 'young boy', 'paedo', 'pre-teen', and 'piccolo', the latter being an Italian word meaning 'small'.

During police interviews, Calimera admitted that he had viewed approximately 10 to 15 of the images, describing some as “soft” images that appeared to be taken during professional photo shoots of 11-year-olds. He also acknowledged seeing thumbnails of more disturbing images involving children as young as three but claimed he had not opened them because he did not want to view such content.

Calimera, who taught singing lessons to children aged between seven and 18 at his home, faced serious charges. He pleaded guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images of children. In sentencing, Judge Tracey Lloyd-Clarke sentenced him to 12 months in prison. She also ordered him to register as a sex offender for the next decade and imposed a Sexual Harm Prevention Order, which restricts him from having unsupervised contact with children and from working with vulnerable individuals.