{"id":2091,"date":"2026-05-14T11:56:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:56:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/ex-bbc-producer-spared-jail-after-downloading-6000-child-abuse-images\/"},"modified":"2026-05-14T11:56:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-14T11:56:31","slug":"ex-bbc-producer-spared-jail-after-downloading-6000-child-abuse-images","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/ex-bbc-producer-spared-jail-after-downloading-6000-child-abuse-images\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex BBC producer spared jail after downloading 6,000 child abuse images"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"article-body\">\n<h2 class=\"LeadText_lead-text__wd_PA __className_184259\" data-testid=\"leadtext\">Dylan Dawes, 50, who started working for the BBC in 2000, had more than 6,000 indecent images of children on his devices when they were seized by police.<\/h2>\n<div class=\"Byline_byline-container__K_Owl\" data-testid=\"byline\"><span class=\"Byline_byline-content-wrapper__Imque\" data-testid=\"byline-content\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"Byline_author-badge-date-wrapper__Q7jj1\">\n<p><span class=\"\" data-testid=\"byline-publishedDate\"><\/span><span class=\"ArticleTimestamp_updated-date__7qD4Q ArticleTimestamp_updated-date-with-published__iFKpF\" data-testid=\"byline-updatedDate\">Updated <\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/div>\n<p><button type=\"button\" class=\"SlideViewerButton_slide-viewer-button__BDJoG\" aria-label=\"Open image viewer\" aria-haspopup=\"dialog\" aria-controls=\"image-lightbox\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-embed__0T8WX ImageEmbed_image-lead__Ti3qQ\" data-testid=\"leadimage\" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-articleid=\"37155394\">\n<div class=\"ImageEmbed_image-container__2AIQm\">\n<figure class=\"Figure_figure__Uce4f\" style=\"--figure-aspect-ratio:1.5\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/0_.jpg\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div><figcaption class=\"ImageCaption_caption__j7HRu\" data-testid=\"image-caption\">\n<p aria-label=\"\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\"><cite aria-label=\"Image: John Myers\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-credit__wlx1W\" data-testid=\"caption-credit\">(Image: John Myers)<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/div>\n<p><\/button><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A former BBC producer has been spared jail after being found guilty of downloading child abuse images.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Dylan Dawes, 50, who started working for the <a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/bbc\" rel=\"follow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">BBC<\/a> in 2000, had more than 6,000 indecent images of children on his devices when they were seized by police. Dawes denied having a sexual interest in children and claimed someone else may have used the devices, which were sometimes left overnight at the BBC\u2019s Cardiff HQ.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">At Cardiff Crown Court in April, he was found guilty of three counts of possessing an indecent image of a child, and three counts of making an indecent image of a child, relating to more than 6,000 images found on his devices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">At Newport Crown Court on Thursday, Dawes was sentenced to 18 months imprisonment, suspended for two years. He was also placed on the sex offenders\u2019 register for 10 years.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Judge Egan said: \u201cYou 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 ball is now in your court to ensure that you stay out of trouble \u2013 I\u2019m confident that you will.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Judge Egan said Dawes had sought to blame \u201canyone and everyone\u201d who had access to the former BBC offices in Llandaff, casting suspicion over many of his former colleagues.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He added: \u201cThe real truth, however, was this \u2013 that none of those many hundreds of people were to blame. You, and you alone, were to blame.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Dawes joined the BBC while living in London in 2000 and started his job at BBC Wales after moving to Cardiff in 2001, where he worked as a producer on radio shows and podcasts.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The court heard he was arrested in 2022 after officers searched his Cardiff home, finding indecent images on four devices, including a hard drive, laptop and two iPads.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Dawes, who worked with presenters including Jason Mohammad and <a target=\"_blank\" aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/all-about\/rhod-gilbert\" rel=\"follow\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"\">Rhod Gilbert<\/a>, told the court he had \u201cfairly regularly\u201d viewed \u201cadult pornography\u201d but denied having downloaded incident images of children.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The court heard he had \u201cno idea\u201d how the images were downloaded and denied having used the search term \u201cjailbait\u201d, suggesting someone else may have accessed the devices.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Harry Baker, prosecuting, said the images had been found on four of Dawes\u2019 devices and it was unlikely this was an \u201cunhappy coincidence\u201d.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Dawes, of Canton, Cardiff, was suspended from his job at the BBC after his arrest and is no longer employed by the broadcaster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Andrew Taylor, defending, said Dawes did not \u201cshy away\u201d from the findings of the court. He said: \u201cThis is a 50-year-old man who has never been before the court in his life. This is a man who has lost everything.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">\u201cHe is coming to terms with his offending and he will try his level best to rehabilitate.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mirror.co.uk\/3am\/celebrity-news\/ex-bbc-producer-spared-jail-37155391\" target=\"_blank\">Source link<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dylan Dawes, 50, who started working for the BBC in 2000, had more than 6,000<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2092,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778759792_0_.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2091"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2091\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2092"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2091"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2091"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/login9ja.com\/global\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2091"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}