Tree surgeon Birch was found to have “a long-standing, deviant sexual interest in animals”. Disturbingly, the court heard that a male seen in the images bore a resemblance to Birch and one of the dogs looked like his dog, but no charges of animal rape were brought against him.
David Singh, prosecuting, told Swansea Crown Court that in October 2021 police executed a search warrant at the farm Birch shared with partner – a self-employed dog trainer named Rachel Brown who trades under the name Brown Dog Training.
A number of Samsung phones were seized and when examined were found to contain 137 pictures and videos of co-called “extreme pornography” showing “acts of a sexual nature between adults and animals”.
The prosecutor said the pictures included a man penetrating the anus of a dog with his penis and a horse “mounting” a male and inserting its penis into the man’s anus. The court heard that while the man in the some of the images “bears similar personal characteristics” with Birch the prosecution was not brought on the basis that he is the man depicted.
The court heard that in his first interview the defendant denied any offending and claimed he had been “framed.” In his second interview, conducted in November 2022 after a full download of the phone, he denied he was the male depicted in the photos but did accept one of the dogs seen in the pictures looked like his own dog.
Birch pleaded guilty to possession of extreme pornography. The court heard he took “full responsibility” for the offending.
Rachel Brown, born c. 1970 and of Picton Place, Haverfordwest, was initially charged alongside Birch but had her not guilty plea accepted by the court after no evidence was offered against her.
Birch’s lawyer said his client had been open with the author of the pre-sentence report and he said there was very little he could say about the offending other than “the pictures are illegal and rightly so.”
He said the defendant and his partner were heavily in debt – including having to pay for rented accommodation for Birch away from the farm – and said there had been a local “reaction” to the nature of prosecution which had seen “some people going far too far.”
Judge Paul Thomas KC said the material found on Birch’s phone was “stomach-churning” and he said it was clear from everything he had read that the defendant has “a long-standing, deviant sexual interest in animals” which needed to be addressed. He said there had already been “ramifications” for the defendant including financial ones and “the understandable public abhorrence” at his offending.
With a one-quarter discount for his guilty pleas Birch was sentenced to four months in prison suspended for two years and was ordered to complete a rehabilitation course which will include a programme to address his sexual offending.