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This document is in a draft format awaiting feedback on the clarification of the purpose of his actions from Stephen Karl Hunt.

INTRODUCTION

My name is David Richards, I am a company director, a former world champion athlete and international sportsman. I am well known in the County Borough of Neath Port Talbot as a business owner (Rugby Relics Ltd), sportsman, sports coach and administrator. I spent 10 years in the UK Armed Forces where I was trained in military intelligence, finishing top of the training course. I am the author of the book "Understanding the Origin and Evolution of Sport". 

I do voluntary work in the community supporting residents. I am chairman of the political group Glynneath Residents Against Contamination and I am supported in this role by academics, former public officials and industry specialists. Another of my roles is at act as an 'admin' on the Facebook Group: Glynneath News and Views, a role I took over on 4 February 2023. The group currently has close to 3,900 members and it is the largest group of its type within the Glynneath area. As well as being an admin on the site, I am also the 'Safeguarding Officer' for the group.

It is in the role as the 'safeguarding officer' on the Facebook page Glynneath News and Views that I make this statement in relation to what I believe is potentially a criminal offence by a serving public official covered by the Sexual Offences Act 2003 and also the offence 'Misconduct in Public Office'.

STATEMENT

I swear on oath that the information I present in this statement is factual and not fictional. Images may have been enhanced to make them more presentable and names where appropriate have been redacted. However, the actual relevant information within the images has not been altered or changed in any way shape or form. I am prepared to appear in a UK court of law to testify that the information I record in this document is factual correct and truthful.

Soon after I took on the role of main admin at the Facebook Group Glynneath News and Views, a suspected paedophile was arrested in Glynneath. It was noted that the suspected paedophile was also a member of a Facebook group in Glynneath similar to ours. This raised concerns amongst myself and other admins. We decided as a group that I should undertake an audit of the activity and membership of our group with a view to safeguarding our Facebook community.

On checking the group Activity Log, I immediately became aware of suspicious activity by the current Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council Leader, Stephen Karl Hunt. The group was created by a local sports coach on 5 January 2017 and Stephen Karl Hunt was made an admin on 4 February 2017 by the group founder. 

At the end of June 2022, the group founder archived the site, and while the group lay dormant and the public were unable to interact with the site, Stephen Karl Hunt, un-archived the site with the sole reason to ban and remove a young mother from the group. This was the only activity on the group between June 2022 and February 2023 as can be seen in the image below. There can be no valid reason relating to the group activity why Stephen Karl Hunt would do this. 

The reason for the girl's exclusion must therefore be external and unrelated to our Facebook group.

At the point in time that he completed this action, Stephen Karl Hunt was the Leader at Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council. I thought this purposeful action to be extremely suspicious and therefore I investigated the information surrounding this action and the results of this investigation can be seen below.

To date I have completed a partial, not exhaustive audit of the group and so potentially there may be more revelations to follow. This was not the only inappropriate action by Stephen Karl Hunt that I found. Several other purposeful actions by the current Council Leader lead me to question his ethics as a self defined 'People's Councillor' and are contrary to the Nolan Principles which public officials should follow. These include the removal and banning of his fellow NPTC councillors from the group. Stephen Karl Hunt used the following Facebook account on Glynneath News and Views to make actions in his role as a councillor. We can see from the title that he refers to himself as "People's Councillor"

My first contact with Stephen Karl Hunt was when he sent me a friend request soon after I joined Glynneath News and Views in April 2020. 

Then on 19 October 2020 Councillor Stephen Karl Hunt  removed a post and banned me from Glynneath News and Views after I posted information relating to a document that identified planning department malpractice. At the time Stephen Karl Hunt was a member of the planning committee and the document identified planning department malpractice at NPTC. In the 3 years since the document was submitted to all members of the planning committee NPTC have not published the document or challenged its contents which identify that the council planning department were complicit in allowing the Cuddy Group Ltd to dump toxic waste at the Heol y Glyn landfill site in Glynneath. The toxic waste has been recently spread around the site has almost certainly caused the death of Glynneath residents through rare neurological disorders that can be linked to contamination, cancers, strokes and heart attacks. The document showed how the planning department worked with the Cuddy Group to breach the Environmental Protection Act. 

Other inappropriate actions include Stephen Karl Hunt declining the Neath Port Talbot Council press office thereby removing information posts about funding opportunities and Covid pandemic information to Glynneath residents. In August 2021 alone, a total of £475,000 of grants were advertised which were blocked from appearing on the Glynneath News & Views facebook page during August 2021 by Stephen Karl Hunt.

INVESTIGATION INTO THE REMOVAL OF A YOUNG MOTHER FROM GLYNNEATH NEWS AND VIEWS 

To refer again to the removal of a young mother on 18 August 2022, We see from a statement made by the young mother a couple of weeks later on 9 September 2022 that she is holding the 'darkest secret about someone which could ruin their whole life' which is 'a massive weight on her shoulders and which still weighs her down to this day'. This is a vulnerable young mother, other posts on her timeline show her to be under a huge amount of stress during this period of her life. It is impossible for the young mother to have made an action within the group because the group has been archived and the public are unable to post or comment on anything in the group, even historical posts that predate the archiving. Therefore the reason behind Stephen Karl Hunt's action of removing the girl from the group must be external and not related to the group. The purpose must be to prevent the girl from adding information to the site or the removal of historical information. From information contained on the girl's timeline and in particular relating to her child, we believe that the reason Stephen Karl Hunt has removed the young mother from Glynneath News and Views is to protect someone who has groomed the girl as a child from the age of 13. I believe from the information contained on the girl's facebook page this is probably Stephen Karl Hunt or his son. The grooming of a 13 year old child is a criminal offence covered by the Sexual Offences Act 2003.

Statutory Offences relating directly to Sexual Grooming are found in sections 15 and s15A of the Sexual Offences Act 2003. Section 15A was inserted by s67 of the Serious Crime Act 2015 which came into force on 3 April 2017.

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2003/42/section/15A

FURTHER INFORMATION - RELEVANT BUT NOT LINKED

It is a general opinion of several members of the public that Stephen Karl Hunt may be a paedophile. I was directed by one who had made cursory investigations into his activities, to his Twitter account and I must state at this point that I am not familiar with the workings of Twitter. However I was told to look for young Thai and Filipino girls, I found what I have assumed as four young girls that he was following without making an exhaustive search of his account. There were additional links to pages within each account that I was not prepared to follow. 

Thumbnails of pages

Whilst not linked I believe this information to be relevant, particularly as he runs a FB account "Engaging with the Youth of Neath Port Talbot" which he manages on his own. I believe the question need to be asked and investigated is:

"How is the Neath Port Talbot Council Leader, Stephen Karl Hunt Engaging with the Youth of Neath Port Talbot?"

CONCLUSION - The Neath Port Talbot County Borough Council Leader, Stephen Karl Hunt can be seen to have made several inappropriate actions in relation to his role as an admin on the Glynneath News and Views Facebook Group. One of those inappropriate actions, targets a group member and can only have been made to hide information or to prevent the person banned from sharing information. 

The action made by Stephen Karl Hunt whilst he is the Council Leader of Neath Port Talbot Council is against a vulnerable young mother of a child aged 3. I believe it probable that Stephen Karl Hunt is attempting to protect the father of the child, which I believe is probably himself or his son. I believe he has removed a vulnerable young mother from a social media group to prevent her making public information about the biological father of her child. From information the girl has posted on her facebook page, the father of the child, looks to have groomed her from the age of 13. We see from Stephen Karl Hunt's Twitter account that he possibly has a liking for young girls and we see that he has the sole propriety rights over a council information page that deals mainly with teenagers. I believe that the information in this document needs to be investigated by the relevant authorities and that the activities in relation to his other facebook pages and his council role in relation to children should also be investigated.