Telford paedophile who used 'micro computer disguised as Lego' to access dark web is jailed
A Telford paedophile has been jailed after he was caught with indecent images of children on numerous hidden devices - including a computer "disguised as a piece of Lego”.
Sanjay Wygold of Woodrows, Woodside received a caution from West Mercia Police for downloading 109 indecent images of children in March 2023.
As part of the conditions of his caution, he was placed on a Sexual Harm Prevention Order (SHPO), which meant he had to regularly give police access to his devices to ensure he had not been downloading any more images, Shrewsbury Crown Court heard on Thursday (October 30).
Mr Dylan Wagg, prosecuting, told the court that the 25-year-old was visited by officers in June 2023 when “prohibited images” featuring "cartoon animals having sex" were found on his devices, putting Wygold in breach of his SHPO.
Mr Wagg said sexual harm prevention officers visited Wygold’s Telford address again in December of the same year, where they found several more images on his devices, this time of children being abused - including images and films of children as young as four being sexually assaulted.
Officers also found Wygold had been downloading software to allow him to access the so-called “dark web”, putting him in further breach of his SHPO.
A further raid on Wygold’s home took place in April this year, when several devices, undeclared to police officers, were found “hidden”. These included a “micro Raspberry Pi computer disguised as a piece of Lego” as well as several storage devices.
Further images and evidence that Wygold had been accessing the dark web were found on these devices, the court was told.
The court heard that Wygold had admitted three charges of downloading indecent images of children, including 15 of the most serious, category A images, six of category B and three of category C.
He had also admitted three breaches of his sexual harm prevention order.
Ms Rosemary Proctor, defending Wygold, told the court: “He has admitted he has a sexual interest in children. He needs help.”
She appealed to the judge to suspend any sentence.
However, Recorder Mr Julian Taylor said: “This crosses the custody threshold and it has to be a sentence of immediate imprisonment."
He added: “Some of these images were real children and these children have been degraded and abused because of people like you. Without people like you downloading them, there would be no incentive for the perpetrators to put these images online.”
He jailed Wygold for a total of 30 months, including 18 months for downloading the indecent images of children and 12 months for the breaches of the SHPO, with the sentences to run consecutively.