Dylan Dawes, 50, has pleaded not guilty to three counts of making indecent images and three counts of possessing indecent images after 6,000 images of children were found on his devices
Dylan Dawes entering Cardiff Crown Court during his trial(Image: John Myers)
A former BBC Wales producer accused of possessing more than 6,000 indecent images of children claims he has “no idea” how the images may have found their way onto his devices. He also referred to his devices being used by colleagues at the BBC offices in Cardiff and he left laptops and hard drive devices at his desk.
Dylan Dawes, 50, is accused of three counts of possessing indecent images of children and three counts of making indecent images of children. The defendant denies the offences and told police he had not knowingly viewed or searched for indecent images and denied having a sexual interest in children.
Dawes was arrested at his home in Cardiff on February 28, 2022, where four devices capable of accessing the internet were seized and examined. These included a Freecom hard drive, a Compaq laptop, and two iPads, Cardiff Crown Court heard. Make sure you never miss Wales’ biggest updates by getting our daily newsletter
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.”
These included seven category A images, five category B images, and 453 category C images which were still accessible. There were 185 category A images, 97 category B images and more than 5,000 category C images which were not accessible.
Giving evidence on Thursday, Dawes was asked by his barrister Andrew Taylor if he had any sexual interest in children. The defendant said: “Absolutely not.”
Mr Taylor said: “Do you have any interest in child pornography?” Dawes said: “Absolutely not.” Mr Taylor said: “Have you ever sought excitement from child pornography?” Dawes said: “Never.”
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.”
The court heard Dawes was arrested on February 28, the day after he and his family had returned from Euro Disney. The defendant was asked by Mr Taylor about working practices at BBC Wales at their former headquarters in Llandaff where Dawes worked.
He said he was employed as a researcher but spent the majority of his career working as a producer for radio programmes for presenters including Jason Mohammad, Rhod Gilbert and Jamie Owen.
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.”
Dawes said he worked in Llandaff in a large open plan office in Radio Wales where producers, researches, freelancing staff and contractors worked.
The defendant said: “As time wore on it became very normal not to know the majority of the people in the office because the nature of work changed. I had a desk that I normally used, but it wasn’t officially your desk and I would often work elsewhere.”
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.”
Mr Taylor said: “Have you gone onto the internet and seen children who are obviously under the age of 18?” Dawes said: “Absolutely not.”
The trial continues.
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