'Isolated' man who turned to chat rooms tried asking girls 'aged 12-13' for explicit images
A man who turned to online chat rooms after lockdown as his only window on the world has been spared an immediate prison sentence after being found guilty of child sex offences.
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Gareth Morgan Jones was told at Merthyr Tydfil Crown Court on Thursday, September 12 that mitigating factors such as his mental health issues fell ‘within a whisker’ of the judge being able to hand him a suspended custodial sentence.
The 64-year-old from Newbridge-on-Wye previously denied five offences, including sexually communicating with underage teenage girls and attempting to engage them in sexual activity, but he was found guilty of five matters at his trial in August.
Jones communicated with three girls who told him they were aged either 12 or 13 in summer 2021. In fact, they were adults posing as children in online chat rooms.
He sent sexually explicit images and requested naked pictures of the girls.
Prosecuting, Ms Alice Sykes said that during his trial, Jones of Llwyncelyn, attempted to convince the jury that he was ‘engaging in fantasy or role play’ and that he knew his conversations were with decoys, but this was rejected.
Ms Sykes said his chats involved him asking two of the girls to engage in sexual activity and solicitation of images of themselves.
