CAERPHILLY PAEDOPHILE CAUGHT WITH 100,000 CHILD ABUSE IMAGES
A PAEDOPHILE was caught with a staggering 100,000 child abuse images on his mobile phone Giovanni Cronin, 36, had amassed the enormous collection between 2013 and 2024 before police came knocking on his door in the Senghenydd area of Caerphilly.Ieuan Bennett, prosecuting, told Newport Crown Court that the defendant refused to give them the PIN and password for his phone.
When detectives did eventually crack the codes to get into the device, they found disturbing material.
“There were images showing young children and quite terrible things being done to them,” Mr Bennett.
Victims were being anally raped and were in “extreme pain and distress”.
Cronin, formerly of Commercial Street, Senghenydd, now of Cross Street, Abertridwr, Caerphilly admitted making category A, B and C indecent images of a child.
He also pleaded guilty to possession of a prohibited image of a child and failing to comply with a notice to disclose the PIN and password for his phone.
The defendant had three previous convictions which included an offence of wounding from February 2017.
Cronin’s barrister said his client’s difficult childhood had a “profound effect” on him.
The court heard how the defendant had endured “the tragic death of his sister”.
Mr Fryer revealed how Cronin had been running a successful business which had fallen on harder times recently.
The defendant, he added, wanted to emphasise that although there 100,000 indecent images on the phone, he hadn’t viewed them all.
Judge Matthew Porter-Bryant told Cronin: “Your offences are deeply concerning.” However, he added, he felt the community would be better protected by the defendant being rehabilitated rather than imposing a short prison sentence.
Cronin was jailed for 24 months with the term suspended for two years.
He was made the subject of a 12-day mental health treatment requirement.
The defendant must attend a 26-day accredited programme and complete a 10-day rehabilitation activity requirement.
