Former BBC producer discovered responsible of possessing over 6,000 little one abuse photographs
Dylan Dawes was found to have more than 6,000 indecent images of children on his devices, but denied having a sexual interest in minors at Cardiff Crown Court
Former BBC producer Dylan Dawes, 50, leaves Cardiff Crown Court after being found guilty of possessing indecent images of children
A former BBC producer has been convicted of downloading child abuse images. Dylan Dawes, 50, who began his BBC career in 2000, possessed more than 6,000 indecent images of children on his devices when police confiscated them.
Dawes refuted having a sexual interest in children and suggested someone else might have accessed the devices, which were occasionally left overnight at the BBC’s Cardiff headquarters.
Following a trial this week, he was found guilty by a jury at Cardiff Crown Court on Friday. The court was told Dawes was arrested in 2022 after officers raided his Cardiff residence, discovering indecent images on four devices, including a hard drive, laptop and iPad.
Dawes, who collaborated with presenters including Jason Mohammad and Rhod Gilbert, informed the court he had “fairly regularly” viewed “adult pornography” but denied downloading indecent images of children.
Harry Baker, prosecuting, stated the images had been discovered on four of Dawes’ devices and it was improbable this was an “unhappy coincidence”.
Judge Egan, addressing the jury, said: “The prosecution effectively said to you, ‘what are the chances of that?”
Dawes joined the BBC while residing in London in 2000 and commenced his role at BBC Wales after relocating to Cardiff in 2001, where he worked as a producer on radio programmes and podcasts.
Andrew Taylor, defending, described Dawes as a man of “good character” and an intelligent individual who would have known to eliminate any evidence, rather than shifting images into the easily-accessible recycle bin on his devices.
“He didn’t get rid of it because he had no reason to believe that there was any imagery on his devices that was incriminatory,” he stated.
The court heard that Dawes had “no idea” how the images were downloaded and denied using the search term “jailbait”, suggesting someone else may have accessed the devices.
Dawes, from Cardiff, was suspended from his role at the BBC following his arrest and is no longer employed by the broadcaster.
On Friday, he was convicted of three counts of possessing an indecent image of a child, and three counts of making an indecent image of a child, relating to over 6,000 images discovered on his devices.
He will be sentenced on 14 May.
