Ex-BBC Wales producer had 6,200 indecent images of children

He will be sentenced next month at Cardiff Crown Court

An ex-BBC Wales producer has been found guilty of downloading thousands of indecent images of children after trying to blame corporation colleagues and claiming he had no idea where the pictures came from.

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

A judge said there was “overwhelming evidence” against the married father-of-three – who downloaded images on four devices – a laptop, hard drive, and two iPads. Don’t miss a court report by signing up to our crime newsletter here

Dawes searched terms including “jailbait” as he downloaded more than 6,000 indecent images of children, a trial at Cardiff Crown Court heard.

The defendant said he had “no idea” how the images had got onto his devices – and he had often left them in “open-plan” BBC offices where colleagues could have used them.

Dawes said he worked for BBC Radio Wales as a producer before moving into a “content producing” role for the broadcaster’s website.

Asked who he had produced shows for, Dawes said: “Jason Mohammad, Jamie Owen, Rhod Gilbert for many years. Other comedians, a number of people who people might be familiar with.”

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

Dawes said while working on such shows he would not take his computer with him to the studio and would leave it at his desk for “extended periods of time” where it was freely available to colleagues.

Dawes 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 and didn’t carry out his own investigation into who else may have used his devices. He was one of hundreds of staff at the state-of-the-art BBC Wales HQ in Central Square, Cardiff, which opened in 2020.

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

Prosecutor Harry 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, of Canton, Cardiff, pleaded not guilty to three counts of possessing indecent images and three counts of making indecent images, but was found guilty on Friday following a four-day trial.

Judge Eugene Egan bailed Dawes ahead of sentence next month and the court heard a pre-sentence report and medical report would be prepared. He must now register as a sex offender.

Judge Egan told Dawes: “The jury has found you guilty on what they found to be absolutely overwhelming evidence.”