Haverfordwest paedophile Paul Baker has been dealt a jail sentence by Swansea Crown Court after his internet browser was found to contain searches relating to toddler porn and child rape.
Appearing in Swansea Crown Court this afternoon (Thursday) via a video link from HM Parc Prison in Bridgend, Baker was told that his offending had been ‘persistent’.
His first conviction came in 2003 for three offences of indecent assault on a female under 14 while additional convictions included making and possessing indecent images of children and breaching a sexual harm prevention order.
The latest offence took place in November 2022 when police officers attended his home in Slade Park, Haverfordwest to install monitoring software on his new mobile phone. The monitoring software was in relation to him having been subjected to a ten-year sexual harm prevention order in October 2018.
But during the police officer’s visit to his property, Baker confirmed that he was not in possession of a new phone.
His original mobile phone was subsequently located on his bedside table and its internet browser confirmed that he had searched for what the Crown described as ‘toddler porn’ and child rape.
Further searches discovered that on the three days preceding the police officer’s visit – November 18, 19, and 20 – Baker had used a web browsing tool which enables easy and swift accessibility to child porn sites for downloading purposes.
Further examinations to his Smart TV produced evidence of similar searches.
Baker, 60, was arrested and interviewed in Haverfordwest custody suite where he stated that his sole purpose of using the web browsing tool was to discover what contraband could be accessed through the ‘dark web’ such as heroin and firearms. One of his search engines was found to be based in Russia; this, he said, was to search for Putin and the war in the Ukraine.
Baker pleaded guilty to breaching the sexual harm prevention order in November 2022 since when he has been remanded in custody.
He was legally represented in court by defence barrister Ashanti-Jade Walton, KC.
“He lives a very isolated and lonely life with very little contact with the outside world,” she said.
“People became aware of his history and he ended up becoming targeted and was subject to name-calling, people banging on his door and windows and, due to his mobility issues, he felt he would be the subject of potential violence.
“He felt trapped as a result, and resorted to seek out material that he quite clearly has difficulties with.
“He feels that he has never had the intervention needed to get to the root of the re-offending, nor of getting to the heart of why he seeks that material.”
Baker was sentenced to 20 months in prison. Half of this sentence will be served in custody while the remainder will be spent on licence, under post-sentence supervision. The sexual harm prevention order will remain in force.
“The purpose of the legislation is to protect others from serious harm from people like you,” commented Her Honour Catherine Richards when imposing sentence.
“This has been a very clear and persistent breach.”
