A former councillor is accused of sexual activity with a lad of 14 he met on the gay dating site Grindr.
John George Reaney, 50, of Llaneilian Heights, Old Colwyn , a former Conservative Colwyn Bay town councillor, told police he had “got swept along in the moment” when interviewed over the allegations he had caused or incited a child to engage in sexual activity.
Mr Reaney - who also denies another charge of intentionally touching him by having oral sex with the boy who can’t be named to protect his identity - also told officers it was “difficult” to know people’s age, claiming the boy had “assured me he was 16”.
Opening the case, prosecutor Simon Mills told a jury at Caernarfon Crown Court that at some point before June 29, 2015 the defendant had met the boy on an internet dating dating site called Grindr specifically geared towards gay or bisexual men.
Mr Mills said that on June 29, four days after his 50th birthday, the defendant met the boy near a supermarket at a nearby seaside town and took him in his car to his home in Colwyn Bay where “sexual acts took place.”
Mr Mills said the defendant had believed the boy was aged 16 or older, and had used a rope, ankle and wrist cuffs on him.
He added: “The law is there to protect. Consent is irrelevant because it is illegal to exercise whatever they are consenting or not.”
Mr Mills said on June 28, the boy’s older brother had seen a conversation between him and a different man and his mum called police who said she needed to get evidence from his mobile phone.
Police were able to trace the defendant and he was arrested in July 2015. When interviewed, the defendant said the boy “assured me he was 16.” Although he did not have any proof, the defendant had said: “I probably should have walked away, but I didn’t. We had a bit of fumbling and it shouldn’t have happened.”
He told police it was some times “difficult” to know people’s age, adding: “I probably got swept along in the moment.”
The jury were shown pictures of the boy he had taken himself on his phone soon after the event.
The trial continues.
see-http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/north-wales-news/john-reaney-colwyn-bay-grindr-11277509
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