A former junior doctor who had videos of toddlers being raped on his phone and chatted about child sexual abuse with like-minded individuals has been sentenced to 30 months in prison. Thomas Jenkins, 34, from Llanelli, was arrested after police received intelligence about his online activities and raided his home in the early hours of February 2.
Details of the Offences
Prosecutor Matt Murphy told Swansea Crown Court that Dyfed-Powys Police received information in January that Jenkins had been involved in online discussions about child sexual abuse and distributing indecent images. Officers seized phones and tablets from his home in Llys Cilsaig, Dafen. Examination revealed a stash of child sex abuse videos, including Category A movies showing the rape of toddlers. Jenkins had also engaged in chats about child sex abuse on the encrypted messaging platform Telegram and shared an indecent image with like-minded people.
Previous Conviction
Jenkins had a previous conviction from 2017 at Manchester Crown Court for attempting to incite a child under 16 to engage in sexual activity. At the time, he was a junior doctor at Wrexham Maelor Hospital and sent sexually explicit messages and photos to an undercover police officer posing as a 13-year-old boy on Grindr. He received a community order for that offence, which Judge Paul Thomas KC described as 'quite frankly astonishing'. Following that conviction, Jenkins was struck off the medical register.
Sentencing Remarks
Judge Thomas said Jenkins was 'a committed and dangerous paedophile' and told him: 'We can all thank our lucky stars that you never qualified with your perverted sexual proclivities.' The judge noted that the children and toddlers in the videos were real youngsters being raped and abused for the gratification of people like Jenkins. With a discount for his guilty pleas, Jenkins was sentenced to 30 months in prison. He will serve 40% of the sentence in custody before release on licence. He must register as a sex offender for life and is subject to a 15-year sexual harm prevention order.
Defence Mitigation
Dan Griffiths, defending, said Jenkins' use of drugs and alcohol had led him to 'throw away a promising career in medicine' and that his client was 'nothing if not entirely realistic' about his situation, understanding that mitigation would only affect the length of the inevitable custodial sentence.
