Leeds pervert warned he faces lengthy jail sentence over ‘5,300 shared abuse videos’

Asher Bailey appeared at Leeds Crown Court this week where he was due to be sentenced for three counts of possessing illegal images and videos, but more seriously, one count of sharing them with other perverts across social media platforms. He admits all of the charges that spanned between 2016 to 2022.

However, the case had to be adjourned because questions were raised over the exact amount of images distributed, which could affect the 24-year-old’s eventual sentence. It was suggested in court that the total could be in excess of 5,300, spread across 15 different chats over the messenger app, Telegram. A large amount of the files were also videos ranked as Category A – showing the most serious abuse.

His barrister, Sean Smith said that Bailey, of Sholebroke View, Potternewton, was eager to be sentenced and had “come prepared to learn his fate”, but Judge Simon Phillips KC said more work was required by the police to ascertain the exact level of his offending.

Judge Phillips told Bailey: “You have realistically come to court prepared for the prospect of being sent to custody. You have admitted the allegation of distributing in excess of 5,000 images, predominantly moving images. At least a third of are said to be Category A. If that’s right, it will be at the top end of the range of sentencing, which is five-years’ imprisonment.”

Bailey was remanded into custody and will appear for sentencing on May 9.