A woman who was found with thousands of 'harrowing' child abuse images pretended to be mute when she appeared in court. However, despite claiming she suffers from a medical condition that renders her incapable of speaking, Lydia Chadwick later went on to talk in order to defend herself before a jury.
The 36-year-old, who has links to Aberdare in Rhondda Cynon Taf, had been found to possess more than 2,000 indecent images of children after police executed a warrant at her home address in Ulverston, Cumbria. Officers seized mobile phones and a laptop.
Over 700 of the images found were considered to be in the most serious category. Chadwick had already been found guilty at an earlier hearing but was sentenced last week (Tuesday, October 25) at Preston Crown Court, reports LancsLive.
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She was jailed for three years for three counts of making indecent images of children, three counts of distributing indecent images of children, possessing an extreme pornographic image and possessing a prohibited image of a child. Officers revealed that she would talk about child sexual abuse online with other people and even sell indecent images of children.
Detective Constable Ryan Parker, Cyber and Digital Crime Unit, said: "Lydia Chadwick stored images on devices belonging to her depicting harrowing images of child sexual abuse. She would communicate online with other people to talk about child sexual abuse as well as selling indecent images of children.
"At the beginning of her trial Chadwick claimed to be mute, due to a medical condition which rendered her unable to speak - but later on she spoke to defend herself. Indecent images of children offences are far from a victimless crime.
"Not only do the images show children being abused, but demand for such images also then leads to further abuse occurring," he added. "We will continue to do what we can to target those who commit online child sexual abuse offences and bring offenders to justice."
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