Wrexham,North Wales - Glyndwr University history graduate jailed for sex with under-age girls

Published date: 10 June 2016 | 

Published by: Staff reporter
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A GLYNDWR University history graduate who wanted to become a teacher has been jailed for 27 months for sex offences.

Geraint Jeffreys, now 23, was 21 when he had sex with two girls aged 14.

At Mold Crown Court yesterday he was placed on the sex offender register for a decade.

A 10-year sexual harm prevention order was made, which among other things, bans him from contacting girls under 16 via Facebook and other social media.

The conviction means his teaching career prospects are in ruins.

Judge Rhys Rowlands said Jeffreys’ name would now be entered on a list, barring him from working with children and vulnerable adults.

The judge told Jeffreys, who wept throughout much of the hearing, that he had takenadvantage of the young girls for his own sexual gratification.

He said he did not accept Jeffreys was immature and said he was an intelligent man who had taken advantage of the young girls “in a most depraved way”.

He accepted that while alcohol had been provided to the girls, drink had not been used to facilitate the offences and there had been no grooming.

Jeffreys, a man of no previous convictions, from Castlefields, Oswestry, admitted seven charges of sexual activity with a child which involved intercourse, oral sex and other sex acts, some of which occurred in his car parked up in the Llangollen area.

Jeffreys met one of the girls, then contacted her by Facebook, the court heard. 

He picked her up in his car where the sexual activity took place. She was said to be drunk on cider but conceded that she wanted sex with him and had not felt pressured. She had told him she was 15.

Various sex acts took with the second girl, who told him she was 14, but the judge said that did not prevent Jeffreys from contacting her and taking her out in his car on a number of occasions.

The law, he said, was there to protect children, often from themselves.

“Both girls were just that, they were still children in any normal person’s eyes,” he said, adding an immediate custodial sentence was inevitable.

The judge said the girls had been flattered by attention from Jeffreys.

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“You were a young man of 21 with a car, no doubt you were an attractive prospect to any young, immature girl. You took advantage of that situation.”

When first arrested, Jeffreys lied and said he did not know the girls. Identification procedures had to be carried out and he then made no comment.

The judge said he took the view that Jeffreys had shown “precious little by way of contrition or remorse” and appeared only sorry for himself and the effect on his own family.

“You are not sorry for what you did to those two young girls,” he said.

Matthew Curtis, prosecuting, said after sex with one of the girls, Jeffreys sent a message to her the following day while she was in school, telling her to take the ‘morning after’ pill, which she did.

The court heard also heard how the second girl said she felt used “just like another number” after her encounter with Jeffreys.

Defence barrister Mark Connor said his client was a young man of good character who would find custody very difficult.

While he appreciated the case passed the custody threshold, he said the sentence could be properly suspended.

The girls were under age and younger than him but there was not a significant disparity in age, he said.

“What we are dealing with here is an immature young man and victims who knew what they were getting into,” Mr Connor told the court.

There had been no severe psychological harm, he said, adding that Jeffreys was a man of positive good character who had learned his lesson and was highly unlikely to reoffend.

“He had already learned by his mistakes,” said Mr Connor.

Jeffeys had perhaps not fully come to terms with taking responsibility for the offences and the probation service could work with him.

He said the offending was caused by his level of immaturity rather than anything more sinister.

Jeffreys had a good degree in history, his career plans as a teacher had been ruined but rather than sit around and do nothing, he had found himself a job.

Mr Connor said his client had since moved on and was in a loving, adult relationship.

A suspended sentence with a sex offender treatment programme would be a proper alternative to immediate custody, he had argued.

see-http://www.leaderlive.co.uk/news/163076/glyndwr-university-history-graduate-jailed-for-sex-with-under-age-girls.aspx