Description
A paedophile who sexually groomed and manipulated an underage teenage girl has been jailed.
Huw Davies, 32, of Pontypridd, Wales, manipulated his victim until she became "infatuated" with him as well as filming them having sex.
The 32-year-old's calculated methods of grooming the girl began with complimenting her on her appearance and encouraging her to talk to him about issues she faced, WalesOnline reported.
He would even go as far as to pick her up in his car as he constructed a relationship where the victim saw him as a "big brother figure".
However, things took a dark turn after he forced the victim to have sex with him at his parents' home when she was a young teenager, a sentencing hearing at Cardiff Crown Court heard.
The victim said they had slept together several times when she was underage as she began to develop romantic feelings for Davies.
She said: "I was in love with the person who was abusing me." He told her to keep the relationship a secret because of her age.
The relationship between Davies and the victim ended when she was 17 and in 2021, she watched a documentary about paedophile businessman Jeffrey Epstein and subsequently confronted Davies, who made excuses for his behaviour.
She later contacted the police as the defendant attended a voluntary interview where he denied any sexual contact with the victim but was arrested after videos of the pair having sex were discovered.
Davies later pleaded guilty to seven counts of sexual activity with a child but was found not guilty of two counts of rape.
She added: "When he wanted sex with me I felt confused by it all and scared. I didn't understand what was going on and I remember feeling really confused about the dynamic changing in our relationship.
"Things got too much for me and would make me feel guilty for wanted to end things... I started to feel like a sex object.
"I felt that's all he ever wanted. I got older and more wiser to what was happening. I started to see he was manipulating me and groomed me for one purpose."
In mitigation David Leathley said his client Davies was regarded as an "honourable man" but those who knew him and described him as "intelligent and hard working".
He said the defendant has Ehlers-Danlos syndrome, which causes bones and his joints to dislocate easily, adding that Davies' dad reckons he "wouldn't last a year" in prison.
Sentencing, Judge Daniel Williams said: "You saw [the victim] as someone you could groom and sexually abuse. You made her think you were indispensable. She was as she described brainwashed by you."
On top of a sentence of six years and nine months imprisonment, Davies was also made subject to a sexual harm prevention order, sex offender notification requirements, and a restraining order.