Two women who set up a petition in response to the suspended sentence of former AM Simon Thomas for the possession and making of Category A images of child sexual abuse appeared on S4C’s Y Byd Ar Bedwar on Tuesday.

The petition drawn up by Welsh Labour town councillors Claudine Young, of Aberystwyth’s Rheidol Ward, and Dinah Mulholland, of Lampeter, currently has over 1,300 signatures.

They are campaigning for a review of the sentencing guidelines for the possession and making of Category A images of child sexual abuse, so that the suspension of sentencing is disallowed in such cases.

They are also calling for the sentencing for Category A offences to take place in a crown court rather than a magistrates’ court, so that the sentences will fall under the Unduly Lenient Sentencing Scheme.

The public would then have a right to ask for a review by the Attorney General’s Office of any sentence that they felt is too lenient.

Ms Mulholland said that in 2017, less than a quarter of the 2,528 convicted Category A offenders received custodial sentences.

Over three quarters walked free from court with a suspended sentence.

“What the legal system appears to perceive as a ‘victimless crime’ shows how out of touch the system is with the reality, which is that these offenders are getting gratification from watching the most depraved and violent illegal images of child sexual abuse,” she said.

“Unless we impose a custodial sentence on these paedophiles, we are failing in our responsibility as a society to safeguard all our children."

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