A man from Neath Port Talbot has been jailed after sending sexual messages to someone he thought was a child.
26-year-old Ashley John, from Gwaun Cae Gurwen, used Snapchat to engage in chat with a profile he believed to belong to a 12-year-old girl in October 2024. In his communications, John claimed to be a 17-year-old sheep farmer from South Wales and proceeded to engage in sexual communications, including sending explicit images of himself and requesting indecent images of the child.
After initially pleading not guilty to the offences of attempting to engage in sexual communication with a child, attempting to cause/incite a girl under 13 to engage in sexual activity and attempting to cause a child under 13 to look at an image of sexual activity, John changed his plea to all three offences to guilty on July 6.
John has been jailed for three years and ten months.
Detective Inspector Hannah Millership said:
“This sentence reflects the serious risk that sexual communication poses to children and their safety and well-being.
“We will continue to pursue those who seek to exploit children online and take action to protect vulnerable young people.”
