A former BBC producer has avoided a prison sentence after being found guilty of downloading more than 6,000 indecent images of children. Dylan Dawes, 50, was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment, suspended for two years, at Newport Crown Court on Thursday.
Dawes, who worked for the BBC from 2000 until his arrest in 2022, was found guilty in April of three counts of possessing an indecent image of a child and three counts of making an indecent image of a child. The images were found on four devices, including a hard drive, laptop and two iPads, seized from his Cardiff home.
During the trial at Cardiff Crown Court, Dawes denied having a sexual interest in children and claimed that someone else may have used his devices, which were sometimes left overnight at the BBC's Cardiff headquarters. He also denied using the search term 'jailbait'.
Judge Egan told Dawes: 'You have paid and you will continue to pay a heavy price for what you did. The public humiliation has been, and will continue to be, significant.' The judge added that Dawes had sought to blame 'anyone and everyone' who had access to the former BBC offices in Llandaff, casting suspicion over many former colleagues.
Dawes, who worked with presenters including Jason Mohammad and Rhod Gilbert, was placed on the sex offenders' register for 10 years. He was suspended from his job after his arrest and is no longer employed by the BBC.
Andrew Taylor, defending, said Dawes did not 'shy away' from the findings of the court and was 'coming to terms with his offending'. He added: 'This is a 50-year-old man who has never been before the court in his life. He will try his level best to rehabilitate.'
