A Swansea man has been handed a 12-year extended sentence after attempting to meet what he believed was a 14-year-old girl for sexual activity. 😡
Guy Brigdale, 34, of Llwyn On, Fforestfach, made contact with what he thought was a teenage girl’s social media profile in January, but was actually communicating with adult “decoys.”
The court heard that Brigdale falsely claimed to be 18 years old (despite actually being 34) when messaging the profile he believed belonged to a 14-year-old. He quickly turned the conversation sexual, sending explicit videos and attempting to arrange a meeting at Parc Trostre retail park near Llanelli.
When confronted by the group running the decoy account, Brigdale desperately swam across the River Loughor estuary before being found hiding in a ditch.
At Swansea Crown Court, Judge Catherine Richards stated: “At present you seem unable to control your sexual behaviour,” determining he posed a significant risk of reoffending.
Brigdale pleaded guilty to multiple offences including attempted sexual communication with a child and attempting to meet a child following sexual grooming.
The court heard Brigdale was previously jailed for three years in 2017 after contacting a young girl on Facebook and trying to get her to send sexually explicit photographs. At the time of his latest offences, he was also subject to a suspended sentence for breaching a Sexual Harm Prevention Order.
The defendant, who has 13 previous convictions for 20 offences, was already on the sex offenders register for life when his defence counsel Stuart John told the court that Brigdale had admitted he “had a predilection for adolescent females” and felt that “without doubt, the best place for him for the foreseeable future is prison.”
The 12-year extended sentence includes six years in custody followed by a six-year licence period. ⚖️
