(Image: PA)

An Army Cadet leader collected and shared images of children being sexually abused and raped, a court has heard. Michael Monks was exposed as a paedophile after police executed a search warrant at his home and seized his phone.

An examination of the device showed he was part of a chat group on an encrypted messaging app where members "traded" indecent images. A judge at Swansea Crown Court told 55-year-old Monks that the images of children found on his phone were of real children somewhere in the world being horribly abused so people like him - "that is, paedophiles" - could masturbate over them.

Matthew Murphy, prosecuting, told the court that in May 2022 police executed a search warrant at the defendant's property and seized a number of electronic devices.

He said that

See Full Page