BBC producer accused of downloading 1000’s of indecent photographs of youngsters ‘ceaselessly’ checked out ‘grownup pornography’, court docket hears

A BBC producer accused of downloading thousands of indecent images of children  ‘frequently’ looked at adult pornography for more than 20 years, a court heard.

Dylan Dawes, 50, said he made radio shows for stars including comedian Rhod Gilbert and Final Score host Jason Mohammad at the time of the allegations, working from BBC HQ in Cardiff.

Dawes told the jury he regularly watched ‘adult, heterosexual pornography’ but denied having indecent images of children.

However Cardiff Crown Court heard he used search terms such as ‘jailbait’ to download more than 6,000 indecent images of children across four devices, including a laptop, hard drive and two iPads.

Dawes said he had ‘no idea’ how the images had got onto his devices but had often left them in BBC offices.

He worked for Radio Wales as a producer before moving into a ‘content producing’ role for the broadcaster’s website. 

Dawes said while working on radio shows he would not take his computer with him to the studio – and would leave it at his desk where it was freely available to colleagues.

He also said he would take his hard drive to work and leave it in the office because the BBC did not have sufficient equipment for storing data.

He said: ‘I would say it was left at the BBC probably for a number of years.’

Dawes said he would also take his iPad to work with him, and that a ‘newer’ iPad may have also been taken to the office when his wife Elin also worked for the BBC.

Andrew Taylor defending, asked him: ‘Have you ever accessed pornography on the internet?’

Dawes replied: ‘Adult pornography yes. Adult heterosexual pornography.’

The defendant said he had accessed ‘adult heterosexual pornography’ through a web browser but had not sought images of ‘young girls’ and had never made any search terms for ‘young girls’.

Mr Taylor asked Dawes if he considered any of the sites he visited as ‘unlawful’. 

He said: ‘You take that as read that if there’s a certificate saying the site includes consensual adults over 18 that you believe it.’

Dawes said he would visit ‘a small number of sites’ and had looked at the sites ‘fairly regularly’ since around 2000 or 2001.

Dawes said he had been on a family holiday to Disneyland Paris and arrived home in Canton, Cardiff, at around 1am, only to be woken by police at 7am in February 2022.

He was then taken for questioning at Cardiff Bay police station and answered a series of questions regarding his job and computers.

Dawes told the jury he was suspended on full pay following his arrest and was signed off sick with ‘stress’.

He did not carry out his own investigation into who else may have used his devices.

Prosecutor Harry Baker read the interview from Dawes who said he mostly used his devices for reading news websites but also looked at ‘normal’ porn websites.

He said: ‘It is what it is. It is all heterosexual legal material. I’ve looked at PornHub from time to time and there is a website called Imagevap which has images on it.

‘There was a website called pornBB which I think is a bulletin board. It is all you know what I would call fairly mainstream, fairly normal.

‘You know, stuff that would be acceptable to adults.’

During the interview, investigator Jennifer Gorman asked Dawes ‘would you say you have a sexual interest in children?’

Dawes replied: ‘Absolutely not.’

Cardiff Crown Court heard more than 6,200 images had been found or recovered, including 192 Category A images – the worst kind.

But Dawes denied being to blame – and told police he had left his iPads and laptops for ‘extended periods of time’ in his BBC office.

Dawes said there were initially no barriers in the old BBC building but barriers were later put in place. 

The defendant said: ‘Often the gates would be open for obvious reasons. If you forgot your card and the staff knew you they would let you in and when there were events they would be often left open.’

Mr Baker said Dawes had searches on his computer including the term ‘jailbait’.

Dawes was one of hundreds of staff at the luxury state-of-the-art BBC Wales HQ in Cardiff which opened in 2020.

The court heard Dawes began working at the BBC in 2001 and was a producer working on Radio Wales programmes, managing social media accounts and producing content for BBC Sounds.

Mr Baker said: ‘During a period of time of about 16 years between December 31, 2006, and March 1, 2022, the defendant has been downloading child pornography, that is indecent images on four different and distinct computer devices he owned.’

The seized devices included a Freecom hard drive, a Compaq laptop, and two iPads.

Mr Baker said that when he was arrested Dawes denied possessing or making any indecent images of children.

He said he had loaned an iPad to a colleague ‘for purely work-related purposes’.

At a second interview, Dawes gave police a prepared statement, saying: ‘I have no knowledge of any indecent images on my devices. I have never been in possession of any indecent images.

‘I have never knowingly used, accessed, downloaded or sought indecent images of children. I have no sexual attraction to children.

‘I have downloaded regular pornography with zip or jpegs. All devices have at times been left for extended periods in open plan offices.’

Dawes refused to answer questions from police – including on how one of his devices contained child abuse images despite it not leaving his house.

Mr Taylor said: ‘He was specifically asked if he knew who had been using his devices to download child pornography onto his devices, and if he could please share details of those persons so they could be investigated.

‘He denied being responsible for the making of those images.’

The court heard the defendant would bring the Compaq laptop and the hard drive into work in order to ‘test websites’ and there was software he needed on his private devices during the course of his work. He admitted his devices were left on his desk routinely and would be left unattended.

When asked if other staff members at the BBC would use his devices, Dawes said: ‘Yes it would be a regular occurrence. A workplace is built on trust so if someone asked to use the laptop I would be like okay.’ He said he would not be able to recall the names of all the people who had used his laptop.

The defendant said: ‘It would often not be in my possession, the hard drives would travel around independent. (The hard drive) was left at the BBC probably for a number of years.’

Concluding his questioning, Mr Taylor said: ‘Have you any idea as to how any of these images may have found their way onto your devices?’ Dawes replied: ‘None whatsoever.’

Mr Taylor asked: ‘Can you point the finger as to who may be responsible for downloading these images?’ To which Dawes said: ‘Not at all.’

Dawes, of Canton, Cardiff, pleaded not guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images and three counts of making indecent images.

The trial continues.