ROBERT WILLIAMS CAERLEON NEWPORT EX-PUB LANDLORD ESCAPES JAIL DESPITE NEARLY 4000 INDECENT IMAGES

In January 2005, Robert David Williams, a 37-year-old former pub landlord from Pilmawr Road in Caerleon, Newport, found himself at the center of a serious criminal case involving the possession of a large collection of indecent images. Williams, who previously managed the Hereford Arms located in Maindee, was discovered to have made a staggering total of 3,945 indecent images on his computer, raising significant concerns about the nature and severity of these materials.

During a hearing at Newport magistrates court, the proceedings revealed a contentious issue regarding the classification of the images. The police had not properly categorized the images, which led to confusion and uncertainty about how depraved or serious the content truly was. The chairman of the bench, Michael Cordy, expressed his frustration, stating, “It is difficult to arrive at a just decision when the level of seriousness of 3,928 of the images has not been properly classified.” He further explained that the court was compelled to treat these images as of the least serious nature due to the lack of proper classification, regardless of their actual content.

Mr. Cordy also noted that the Crown Prosecution Service had attempted to obtain more detailed information from the police but was unsuccessful. He emphasized the importance of proper categorization and said, “We trust the court’s dissatisfaction with this situation will be brought to the attention of the police to avoid this sort of situation occurring again.”

Despite the controversy over classification, Superintendent Ray Wise of Gwent Police defended the police’s handling of the case. He stated that all the images in question had been categorized and provided to both the Crown Prosecution Service and the defense. Additionally, Wise mentioned that police had offered to present all the images to the court during the hearing, an offer that was declined by the court.

Williams pleaded guilty to 17 counts of making indecent pseudo-photographs of a child, with the offenses occurring between August and September of 2003. The court also considered an additional three offenses involving the nearly 4,000 images. Prosecutor Paul Moore detailed that on September 27, 2003, police executed a search warrant at the Hereford Arms on Hereford Street, where they seized computers and related equipment. The images were classified on a scale from one to five, with seven images deemed Level One, indicating the most serious, and ten classified as Level Two.

In sentencing, Williams was ordered to complete 80 hours of community service and to adhere to a two-year community rehabilitation order. He was also mandated to attend a community sex offenders program and to register as a sex offender for five years. The chairman of the bench noted that the Court of Appeal had advised that the seriousness of the images did not warrant a custodial sentence. Consequently, the court ordered the destruction of the seized computers and equipment.

Williams’s defense attorney, Martyn Prower, highlighted that the case had been hanging over his client for 14 months and argued that the images were at the lowest end of the indecency scale. Following the verdict, the current landlord of the Hereford Arms, who chose not to disclose his name, commented, “As soon as I knew what was going on, I banned him and I haven’t seen him for months.” This statement underscored the establishment’s disassociation from Williams after the incident.