James Hanna Jailed in US for Child Pornography and Rape

James Hanna's failed attempts to turn Blaenavon and Atherstone into Book Towns had been all but forgotten by me in October 2012, when I received a call from a BBC Wales reporter. He asked if I knew anything about Hanna and child pornography?

I had talked to the BBC and the police in 2004 about accusations of fraud made to me by a man who repeatedly promised to provide evidence but failed to do so.

I recalled that this man had referred to Hanna as a pornographer on several occasions, but I had assumed that this was because his shop in Blaenavon had a top shelf of photography books that some would regard as 'soft porn'.

I also told the reporter that I remembered that when I was trying to expose Hanna for the charlatan he was, Richard Booth had refereed to him as a pornographer - but that was all I knew.

It transpired that Hanna had been arrested in Madison County, Arkansas, in August and indicted the following month on three counts of rape involving a minor and 25 counts of engaging children in sexually explicit conduct for use in visual or printed medium and one count of sexual indecency with a child and three counts of internet stalking of a child.

However, a review by Gwent Police into allegations made against Hanna in 2004 found that there was "no clear evidence" of any crime regarding indecent images being committed while he was living in Wales.

He was convicted in July 2013 for the production child sex images of two thirteen year old girls and sentenced to 60 years in prison. And in the following August he received a further 60 years for three charges of rape.

Mike Goodenough
Editor
31.12.17.

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