‘Obsessed’ paedophile jailed after discovery of sick Harry Potter images


A web pervert “obsessed” with indecent images of children had pictures of youngsters whose faces had been covered using Harry Potter film characters, a court heard.
Matthew Hatfield, 40, of Bryn-y-Baal, Mold, was jailed for a year after he admitted breaching a sexual harm prevention order by deleting his internet browsing history on a laptop, possessing extreme porn and prohibited images of a child.
A 50-week suspended sentence was also activated and he must register as a sex offender for 10 years.
Imposing the 102-week term at Mold, district judge Gwyn Jones told Hatfield: “What the report from the probation team indicates is you still don’t take on board the seriousness of the offences.”
The offences had occurred when he was in his bedroom, and Judge Jones said there were images of children aged between four and eight.
Some of the images had a superimposed speech bubble containing extremely explicit sexual comments.
“The search terms used clearly indicated an extremely unhealthy interest in incest and sexual relations with young children,” the judge said.
The court heard that, while Hatfield had worked with probation, it had been “superficial” and he had “gone through the motions” with the Lucy Faithfull Foundation, a charity dedicated to preventing child sexual abuse.
James Neary, prosecuting, said police visited Hatfield’s home in October 2017 to monitor his devices and he fetched his laptop.
The screensaver showed two 10-year-old girls who Hatfield claimed were from TV’s “Little House on the Prairie” and were now adults. Officers removed his laptop and examined a mobile phone.
Hatfield’s condition made him more likely to engage in obsessive behaviour but his focus had changed gradually to legal images, said Mr Matthews, and he was also getting out into the community more.
Judge Jones said he had borne in mind the “significant delay” in bringing the case to court.
December 2018
Flintshire man admits possessing indecent images of children and breaching sexual harm order
A man has admitted breaching his sexual harm prevention order and possessing indecent images of children.
Matthew Graham Hatfield, 40, appeared at North East Wales Magistrates Court where he pleaded guilty to seven charges.
District judge Gwyn Jones rebailed him until next month for sentence.
He told Hatfield, of Ffordd Ogwen in Bryn-y-Baal, near Mold, that it would be decided on the next occasion if he would be sentenced at the magistrates court or whether the case would be sent to the crown court for sentence.
Hatfield admitted that between July 2016 and October last year he had in his possession 23 indecent images of children at category C.
He admitted breaching his sexual harm prevention order, imposed on him in November 2016, by deleting his internet browsing history.
Hatfield further admitted possessing an extreme pornographic image portraying a sex act between a human and a dog and four charges of possessing prohibited images of children.
The Mold court was told the offences put him in breach of an earlier 12 week prison sentence which had been suspended for two years.
Mark Davies, defending, told the court Hatfield was a man who suffered from substantial health issues.
The judge ordered a pre-sentence report from the probation service.
November 2016
Thousands of indecent images were found on Flintshire man’s computer
A man had thousands of indecent images on his computer equipment, a court heard.
Matthew Graham Hatfield, 38, admitted possessing just over 1,000 of them.
But a further 240,000 images had not been categorised because of the work involved.
“It was a very large collection of child abuse images,” said prosecutor Rhian Jackson at Flintshire Magistrates Court at Mold.
Hatfield, of Ffordd Ogwen, Bryn y Baal near Mold, admitted possessing 25 category A images, the worst kind.
He admitted possessing one category B and 1,059 category C images.
Hatfield further admitted possessing 3,506 prohibited images of children.
He was rebailed pending sentence.
The court heard how the defendant had previously been cautioned by the police for possessing images.
He was caught on this occasion after he took a laptop to a shop for repair.
Staff contacted police because of file names indicative of child abuse images.
His home was searched and a number of items were seized and examined – together with a note he had written himself, a story about committing a sexual offence with a child.
Search terms had been used which indicated an interest in such material.
Interviewed, he said he was interested in a case where a girl aged five had been made pregnant and had been searching to find further cases.
He said that he did not think looking at the images was illegal and that those who had placed the images on the internet were at fault.
The defendant had no previous convictions, but in 2009 he had received a police caution for possessing five indecent images of children.
Miss Jackson said the prosecution accepted that the defendant had disabilities, but he was skilled in technology.
Magistrates agreed they would retain the case in the magistrates’ court at this stage and ordered a pre-sentence report.