
Couple who sexually abused a child over a three-year period are jailed after footage of horrors was shared online
Jonathan Leonard, 58, from Caldicot, Wales, and Ann Bray, 62, from Newport, were arrested in September 2024.
The pair's devices were taken by officers which revealed the pedophiles had images and videos of them abusing a child from 2021 to 2024.
Bray had been grooming the child to participate in sexual activity with the pair, National Crime Agency (NCA) investigators discovered.
The abuse was captured by Bray and shared to Leonard who who went on to share some of these images online to other paedophiles.
Officers found chat messages between the couple discussing the abuse, their fantasies, and making plans to commit the sordid crime.
The duo were also found to be in possession of several other explicit images of children and extreme pornography.
They were charged with multiple child abuse offences and pleaded guilty at Cardiff Crown Court on 24 January.
Bray and Leonard were both sentenced to 23 years' imprisonment, with eight years to be spent on licence today—a supervised probation.
Daniel Waywell, Senior Investigating Officer at the NCA, said: 'Leonard and Bray worked together to support one another's sexual interest in children, subjecting a child to years of horrific abuse, which they filmed and shared online with other paedophiles.
'This child, and every one of the victims of abuse in the indecent images and videos found on their devices, are re-victimised each time this material is viewed and shared online.
'The NCA is committed to safeguarding children from sexual abuse and we will continue to work tirelessly, alongside international partners, to remove children from harm and bring offenders like Leonard and Bray to justice.'

Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles


BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Taser trial for prison staff to tackle violence behind bars
Specially trained staff in male prisons in England and Wales will be issued with Tasers as part of a new trial to clamp down on pilot comes as new figures obtained by the BBC show more than £20m has been paid out in damages over five years to staff and prisoners who have been say they will look at whether the electric stun guns should be more widely used after the trial this Prison Officers' Association (POA) said the cost of the "intolerable" levels of violence was an issue the government needed to tackle with a sense of urgency and the use of Tasers was long overdue. Speaking after watching a demonstration of the technology at a training facility in Oxfordshire, Lord Chancellor and Justice Secretary Shabana Mahmood said the government would not allow jails to be controlled by fear or disorder."We're already rolling out protective body armour and by trialling Tasers we're making sure staff have the tools they need to keep themselves safe." Mark Fairhurst, national chairman of the POA, said: "Prisons have been overcrowded for decades, which leads to a lack of activity spaces for prisoners leading to boredom, drug abuse and violence."Staff must be equipped with the personal protective equipment they need to quell violence and prevent life-changing injuries."The Tasers will be issued to a specialist national unit, which will respond to complex and serious incidents in men's prisons where there is a risk to safety, including hostage situations and riots. Severe PTSD after attack The intervention follows an attack on three prison officers in April at HMP Frankland in County officer Claire Lewis, who is still affected by severe PTSD after being stabbed by a prisoner 15 years ago, is welcoming the Taser roll-out in limited said: "Tasers are a great piece of kit, however, only in an environment whereby it's a planned extraction or if there's an assault on a wing." Ms Lewis, who also worked at HMP Frankland, is campaigning for all officers to have stab-proof vests. "If I'd have got a vest on when I was attacked, I would not have received the serious injury I did to my back - it narrowly missed my spinal cord." The latest Ministry of Justice figures showed the number of staff assaulted in adult prisons across England and Wales hit a new peak last 2020 and 2024 there were 334 compensation claims for prisoner-on-prisoner assaults, 232 prisoner-on-staff cases and 104 claims of staff assaulting inmates, according to a BBC freedom of information - not her real name - a former prison worker in south-east England, said: "They used to use snooker balls in socks, now they use full cans of drinks in socks to attack each other,"They make knives out of tuna cans. I did see an officer get kettled, which means hot water thrown over him."The Prison Service says it is also ramping up the number of full lockdown searches in high-security jails to stop more of the contraband which fuels violence behind month anti-drone measures such as new netting and reinforced windows were announced. President of the Prison Governors' Association Tom Wheatley backed the Taser trial for specialist officers, but not a wider roll-out to staff."If they were issued to all officers on a daily basis, it could carry additional risk," he said."Certainly not issued more generally, because they form a threat item, so if somebody managed to get a Taser off a member of staff, that would be a real concern to us."


Times
6 hours ago
- Times
Prison officers to use Tasers on violent inmates as assaults soar
A prisoner lies on the floor in the gym as three inmates batter him with pickaxe handles, threatening to kill him. Seconds later, the three attackers are sprawled motionless, having been shot with 1,500 volts of electricity from Tasers fired by eight specialist prison officers. Luckily for the four 'prisoners', they are not actually in custody, They are among the elite unit of prison officers taking part in role play during their final training sessions before being sent to prisons across England and Wales, equipped with Tasers. From Monday, prisoners who misbehave face being tasered after Shabana Mahmood, the justice secretary, authorised the use of the devices in prisons for the first time in an attempt to combat spiralling violence in Britain's overcrowded prisons. Highly trained specialist officers from the operational response and resilience unit (ORRU) will be equipped with the T7 model, which can hit targets 24 feet away. The weapons are powered with 50,000 volts, although they do so at about two milliamps, which mean they hit with a force of 1,500 volts of electricity.


The Sun
6 hours ago
- The Sun
Boy, 11, among 2,000 kids arrested last year for dealing heroin, cocaine and amphetamine, The Sun can reveal
A BOY of 11 was among almost 2,000 under-17s arrested last year for dealing drugs including heroin, cocaine and amphetamine, The Sun can reveal. Police figures show an average of about 40 children aged 16 or younger were held every week in England and Wales on suspicion of peddling Class A substances. Experts believe many are vulnerable victims of county lines gangs who are coerced into transporting drugs from one area to another, often across police and local authority boundaries. The 43 forces in England and Wales, plus British Transport Police, released figures after a Freedom of Information request. They showed that 1,914 under-17s were nabbed for either selling drugs — or having such huge quantities they were suspected of being dealers. The 11-year-old was held in Wiltshire. The forces for Merseyside, Northamptonshire and Hampshire did not provide figures so the true total would be higher. London saw most arrests, with 219 — including seven 13-year-old boys. Greater Manchester had 128, two involving boys of 12. One was trying to deal in Class A drugs and the other attempted to supply cannabis. The same force nicked a boy of 13 for trying to sell heroin. West Midlands Police arrested 114 under-17s, including two girls of 16 over Class A drugs. Leicestershire saw 108 arrests, with children pulled in for allegedly dealing in LSD, ecstasy, cocaine, cannabis and heroin. Sussex cops made 102 arrests, two of boys aged 13 on suspicion of dealing in crack and heroin. Anastasia de Waal, of the Civitas think-tank, said: 'We're continuing to see the exploitation of very vulnerable children here. Such exploitation blights not only these youngsters' childhoods but also their futures. Not enough is being done to prevent it.' Lynn Perry, chief executive of Barnardo's, added: 'Children who are exploited are often forced to commit crimes by being coerced, threatened and made to feel like there's no way out.' Ministers want to bring in a law so drug kingpins who force kids into county lines gangs can be jailed for up to ten years. 1