Vicar had 56,000 child porn images

Vicar had 56,000 child porn images

www.news.com.au

A VICAR in Wales has been jailed for three-and-a-half years for amassing a collection of more than 56,000 indecent images of children.

Police found the stash of illicit pictures when they raided Reverend Richard Hart's vicarage in Beguildy in central Wales after tracing his credit card details from websites he had visited, the Press Association reported.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Yet another sad story of perverts hiding behind the cloth. No doubt the church knew of this insidious crime but kept it under wraps. I mean, how long does it take to amass 56K of images?? And he used a credit card - WTF? Why does a priest need a personal credit card for anyway?

*****************************************







www.news.com.au
(visit the link for the full news article)

What gets me is that somebody would be so stupid as to use a credit card to purchase or access something so blatantly wrong and illegal. What gets me more is that even though the guy and most likely plenty of others are out there using their own credit cards probably from their own computers in their own homes or offices the authorities apparently cant find them until 56,000 images have been collected?

It must take years to gather that many images. But then I'm not a cop and I'm not collecting porn licit or otherwise so I really wouldn't know.

It would have taken years to amass that many photos...or a few VERY ...dedicated months. What irks me about this the most is this: My friend, Kirby, is going to a University in Missouri; he also lives in the dormitories there. His roommate had child pornography on his laptop (something like a video and 5 or 6 pictures for his sick fapping pleasure); the FBI busted into his room in the dead of night and arrested his roommate. The guy had only had those files on his lappy for about two months....but other police couldn't find more than what had to be gigabytes of disgustingness on a priests computer? Come on! Smells fishy to me.

reply to post by thisguyrighthere


Fully agree with you. We've lost the war against this depravity if someone using a credit card and personal computer can amass 50,000 child porn images before they're caught.

Like the supposed 'war on drugs' ... is it a war ? Or is the claimed and highly-publicised 'war' simply a means of advertising the product ?

Further, the individual should be jailed for life, imo, rather than the token slap on wrist that 3.5 years represents (if he serves anywhere near that time, which is highly doubtful).

Whenever I read stories like this, whether it's a vicar in Wales or some politician in Timbuktu, the thing that I always struggle to comprehend - aside from the age of the people in the images - is the sheer number of the images.

56,000 images? Why? Why would anyone need that much porn of whatever kind? Whatever your sexual orientation or predilection, surely that kind of figure is overkill. Without putting too crude a point on it, how much wanking did this guy need to do?

Also, without wanting to diminish the seriousness of what's happened, is there an almost Pokemon mentality to this: 'gotta collect 'em all'? Is there a weird 'collecting angle' to this like comic collecting or stamp collecting and so on?

Genuine questions as I really am struggling to comprehend this.

reply to post by Merriman Weir


Good questions which I'm sure have occurred to most of us.

What *IS* it about ? Control ? Isn't 'control' the driving motivation behind paedophilia ?

Originally posted by Dock6
reply to post by Merriman Weir

 

Good questions which I'm sure have occurred to most of us.

What *IS* it about ? Control ? Isn't 'control' the driving motivation behind paedophilia ?

Well, control is said to be the motivator behind rape in general but I'm not sure how control would play a part with this. I'm presuming this man is a consumer of child porn rather a creator - although happy to be corrected - so the man has no direct contact with the abused children and it's other people doing the abusing and controlling. At best, that's control by proxy and if control is really what 'floats your boat' I can't imagine that would be good enough to be honest.

reply to post by Merriman Weir


I had a couple friends in college who would download and collect movies and music they would never watch or listen too. Spools and spools of CD's and DVD's unlabeled and stacked. Then came the external harddrives. Terabyte upon terabyte of just stuff. Stuff theyd never watch and never listen too. A sort of digital pack-rat behavior. I guess that on top of being a pedo is an especially horrid combination.

reply to post by Dock6

Originally posted by Dock6
reply to post by thisguyrighthere

 

Further, the individual should be jailed for life, imo, rather than the token slap on wrist that 3.5 years represents (if he serves anywhere near that time, which is highly doubtful).

I agree that they should get life, but even 3.5 years would be hell on earth for a rock spider (child molester) in prison. Usually these sickos have to be kept away from the main prison community because they will be brutally beaten / killed.

reply to post by WatchNLearn


A collection of photos depicting physical and mental torture and suffering of children getting someone off is one of the things in this world I try to not think about, I am sickened by this man and hope they throw the book at him. Over fifty thousand pictures? Something tells me this man was sharing or selling a lot of these pictures with “friends”, I hope this helps officials bust all their asses and hopefully some of the pictures will lead them to children in need of rescue.





[edit on 25-9-2008 by rapinbatsisaltherage]

[edit on 25-9-2008 by rapinbatsisaltherage]

I dare to guess how many of them, but a considerable number of the "56,000" he admitted to 'Taking and making' himself.

A few females have come forward, saying he used to have them over to his house, they had piano lessons with his wife or something, but he took pics of them nude in the river swimming... God knows why they'd get nude regardless at a young age esp' for a man of God (Because I know the 'they trusted him' scenario might pop up somewhere).

*SNIP*

====
Mod Edit: snipped profanity
Mod Note: Profanity/Circumvention Of Censors – Please Review This Link.

[edit on 25/9/2008 by Badge01]

Obviously this guy is messed in the head.He didn't even care if he got caught.
To him it was like an obsession he couldnt control.
Perhaps he will get some help.Although I doubt it.
But what bothers me is, and I have 2 children of my own.
Is why is there websites there in the first place, selling this evil crap?
Why the lazy half assed corrupt cops aren't spending there time going after the people who abuse children, and stopping it being there in the first place.
Instead they are sitting on the side of the road giving speeding tickets to raise revenue for the corrupt government.
In some way it seems they dont even really care about the children being abused.
And just do busts like this to make themselves look good, and give them more powers to pry through peoples financial records to steal taxes off them.
Why is there so much of it around?
You cant even search for adult things on Google for 5 minutes without coming across some of it.
And Google even does a good job to try and get rid of it.
But it pops up faster than they can take it down.
Why not stop the people making it and providing it?

reply to post by WatchNLearn

I mean, how long does it take to amass 56K of images??

I was into porn pretty heavy for a while. Regular porn that is. But I collected probably about a thousand images a month I would guesstimate.

(It was a part of my work too, so don't think I'm a total perv. )

This problem with child molesting priests is out of control, I can't understand why this group of individuals is so prone to it; it almost seems counter intuitive.

This was a Catholic church, no? It seems to me like the root of the problem could be the fact these guys must take a vow of celibacy. Perhaps they see underage boys as somewhat of a sexual loophole. Obviously this is false but I could see the sick/twisted logic in believing that it is. Plus the shame suffered by the young boy would serve to dissuade him from talking about it with parents/friends.

There clearly aren't harsh enough penalties in effect, this needs to change. Usually when you hear about these cases on the news, the church just pays off the family and the sick priest gets to walk free based to insufficient evidence.

Investigators need to start more aggressively seeking out these perverts and catching them in incriminating situations; maybe using hidden cameras or listening devices. In this case, the photos should help; hopefully he was dumb enough to have snapped them himself in some of them to prove his involvement.

Repeat offenders, like most are, molesting 10s or 100s of children until they're caught; should receive mandatory life sentences without possibility of parole. If they actually have sexual intercourse with the child, the death penalty should be on the table since they effectively steal the lives of those they victimize.

Let these guys get married so they can have someone to take their sexual energy out on, legally. We're all human, it's ridiculous to try and deny one of our most basic of needs.

He was a Vicar in the Church of Wales.

This time it wasn't a catholic.

I think that there needs to be some sort of public humiliation for people like this.

Bring back the stocks or make him wear a giant letter P for pervert. Everyone should know wherever he goes that he is a child pornographer.

reply to post by Torsten

All of it is kind of strange. But there is a difference between the way law enforcement agencies operate. In the USA, the FBI has developed a hacking system that automatically scans the hard drive of any PC that is suspected to have porn-related data. Random searches are done as well. (It was initially developed to search for terrorists worldwide.) The person that got busted was in the USA where it doesn't take too long to get noticed.

The porn guys have launched counter-measures; all of it contributes to the advancement of computer science.


[edit on 9/25/2008 by stander]

reply to post by ANoNyMiKE

Let these guys get married so they can have someone to take their sexual energy out on, legally. We're all human, it's ridiculous to try and deny one of our most basic of needs.

Ok. Anyone who knows me here knows my stance on this topic. I tend to be very verbal about HARSH punishments for humans such as this.

However, these men are looking at CHILDREN not WOMEN. So even if they were married, does one really think anything would change? Probably not. They would probably be married, doing the same thing.

Now if these men of the cloth were looking at Playboy and so on, then maybe the theory would stand. But, since it involves children, I dont see how the 2 can be connected, per say

JMO


****

OH and JUST THREE years????? Not sure how Welsh prisons are there, but is 3 years REALLY going to punish him and teach him a lesson. When he gets out.....what is the chance he will go back to his sick ways? Probably very high

[edit on 9/25/2008 by greeneyedleo]

Originally posted by greeneyedleo
reply to post by ANoNyMiKE

 

Let these guys get married so they can have someone to take their sexual energy out on, legally. We're all human, it's ridiculous to try and deny one of our most basic of needs.

Ok. Anyone who knows me here knows my stance on this topic. I tend to be very verbal about HARSH punishments for humans such as this.

However, these men are looking at CHILDREN not WOMEN. So even if they were married, does one really think anything would change? Probably not. They would probably be married, doing the same thing.

Now if these men of the cloth were looking at Playboy and so on, then maybe the theory would stand. But, since it involves children, I dont see how the 2 can be connected, per say

JMO


****

OH and JUST THREE years????? Not sure how Welsh prisons are there, but is 3 years REALLY going to punish him and teach him a lesson. When he gets out.....what is the chance he will go back to his sick ways? Probably very high

[edit on 9/25/2008 by greeneyedleo]

A lot of these guys have been celibate for life, maybe if they had a chance to have a real relationship with a woman things would be different. I mean never being allowed to have sex must take a psychological toll on a person, they're never allowed to establish what "normal" is.

Of course I'm just throwing out ideas here, obviously they're extremely disturbed individuals and my angle is irrelevant now that they're grown men and set in their perspective.

Oh believe me I'm not suggesting these guys should be let off easy. If it were up to me alone I'd say brand them with a P for pedophile on their face with a hot iron and then release them into the prison population with a life sentence. Death is a much too easy escape when we're talking about lethal injection. I'd rather the other inmates take care of him in ways that the judicial system never could.

sky news reported he also had 5 children and a wife. and that the oldest among the pictures was 1973, up to 2008. so thats how long he's been collecting them, thats before he even was a vicar, and before he had a wife and kids. They also said it was a collection that he just couldn't stop growing, kind of like coins.. or stamps... or postcards.... in his case its sickening images.

IMO 3 years in prison isnt enough, he should be kept in a mental hospital away from children.

I feel sorry for his kids and his wife having to deal with his shame.