A PORT Talbot man guilty of sexual activity with a 14-year-old boy has been sent to prison for three-and-a-half years.
Ceri Arnold met his young victim via a gay website, Swansea Crown Court heard.
He arranged to meet the teenager and then set about "grooming" him for sexual purposes — even though he knew the boy was only 14.
Arnold, aged 36, of Grange Street, was sent down yesterday by Judge Paul Thomas QC after pleading guilty to sexual activity with a child and supplying controlled drugs.
Touching
The court heard that, after meeting the boy, Arnold took to picking him up in his car from school.
Sexual touching would then take place in the vehicle or at the defendant's parents' home.
Judge Thomas, sentencing, said Arnold had set out to seduce a young, sexually vulnerable teenager.
"This was a calculating and prolonged attempt to have an illegal sexual relationship with a 14-year- old," said the judge.
A grossly aggravating factor was that Arnold had also supplied controlled drugs to his victim, a youngster "struggling to come to terms with all the varied emotions of that age".
"You are a man of hitherto good character," the judge told Arnold.
"But the fact remains that you took advantage of this boy's age and nature and to that extent you were predatory."
Only a sentence of immediate custody was appropriate and Arnold would have to be registered indefinitely as a sex offender.
Daniel Williams, in mitigation, said that Arnold's parents were devastated by his conduct and this was something that was "aggravating the agony he genuinely feels about what he did".
"The defendant got into a situation where sense did not prevail and this continued for some time," said the barrister. This is going to be his first experience of custody — and his last."
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