Two Pembrokeshire people have appeared in court charged with possessing ‘extreme pornographic’ images of animals, with the details of the case said to be ‘too unsavoury’ to be read out in an open court.
Fifty-four-year-old Rachel Brown, and thirty-nine-year-old Jason Birch have both been charged with the same criminal act which is alleged to have occurred whilst both were residing at The Barn, Little Dumpledale Farm in Haverfordwest.
The full wording of the charge states that both the defendants - ‘possessed extreme pornographic images which portrayed in an explicit and realistic way, a person performing intercourse or oral sex with a dead/alive animal which was grossly offensive, disgusting or otherwise of an obscene character and a reasonable person looking at the image would think that any such person or animal was real’.
It is alleged the offence occurred back on November 30, 2022.
No pleas were entered by the defendants when the case came before Haverfordwest Magistrates Court on Tuesday, August 13.
Magistrates heard that the female defendant at the time was a dog behaviour practioner and canine coach, running training classes from her farm.
With members of the magistrates being handed a graphic written summary of the case, along with photographs; Crown Prosecutor Sian Vaughan said that the facts of the case were too unsavoury to be read out in an open court.
She went onto explain that there were also a number of holiday cottages being advertised as ‘dog friendly’ at the property in Haverfordwest where the indecent acts are alleged to have taken place.
Magistrates also heard that there were suspicions that some of the animals depicted in the images belonged to both Brown and Birch.
After magistrates declined jurisdiction for the case, the matter was transferred to Swansea Crown Court, where a hearing will now take place on September 13.