Locations
Greenfield Avenue, Port Talbot, South Glamorgan, Neath, Port Talbot, SA13
Description
A man has been jailed for a series of sickening sex attacks he carried out on a boy in the 1980s.
Neil Thomas was himself just a teenager when he subjected a victim half his age to repeated abuse after grooming him with pornographic magazines and the offer of playing computer games.
Swansea Crown Court heard the 45-year-old has had "zero consensual sexual experiences" in his life, a situation which had led him to become addicted to ever more extreme pornography.
John Hipkin QC, prosecuting, said the offending took place in the late 1980s.
He said Thomas, who was around 15 at the time, showed his young victim pornographic magazines, and offered him the chance to play computer games before going on perform a series of sex acts on the boy, as well as getting the boy to perform sex acts on him.
The barrister said as the victim - who was half Thomas' age - grew up, he came to realise what had happened to him but it wasn't until 2017 that he confided in his partner.
The police were subsequently told, and in 2018 officers executed a search warrant at the defendant's home - in his bedroom they uncovered "a large amount of pornographic material" while on a computer they found more than 130 indecent images and movies featuring children, as well as images showing women "being physically assaulted for the purposes of sex".
The court heard police also found the computer had been used to search online for indecent images of youngsters using terms such as "toddler incest".
Mr Hipkin read details of an impact statement from Thomas' victim in which he said his life had "gone off the rails" after the abuse, and he had been left battling the "demons". He said he felt Thomas had stolen his childhood, and the abuse had impacted every aspect of his life.
Thomas, of Greenfield Avenue, Taibach, Port Talbot, had previously pleaded guilty to six counts of indecent assault and gross indecency with a child, and to five counts of possessing indecent images and extreme pornography when he appeared in the dock for sentencing.
James Hartson, for Thomas, said there was only limited mitigation he could put forward on the defendant's behalf but that his guilty pleas - albeit ones entered on the first day of his trial - had spared his victim from being publicly cross-examined.
He said there had been an "element of opportunism as well as grooming" in the offending, and Thomas was deeply ashamed of what he had done.
The barrister said though not an excuse for his behaviour, as a teenager the defendant had "left out" while his school friends had been talking about sexual experiences as he is "a man with zero consensual sexual experiences - and that applies to this day as a 45-year-old".
He said Thomas had been "somewhat depressed and repressed" through his life, and had developed a "compulsive addiction" to pornography, something which had led him to seek out ever-more extreme material.
Judge Keith Thomas said it was not an easy case to sentence because of the age of the defendant at the material time, and also different charges and sentences which were in place in the 1980s.
For the assault charges the defendant as sentenced to four-and-a-half years prison, and for the indecent images charges to eight months - the sentences will run consecutively making an overall sentence of five years and two months. Thomas will serve up to a half that period in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.
The defendant was made the subject of an indefinite sexual harm prevention order to control his internet use and contact with children, and will be a registered sex offender for the same length of time.