Powys man jailed for sexually assaulting teenage girl

A 63-year-old man from Powys has been jailed for 27 months after being convicted of sexually assaulting a teenage girl, leaving her a “shell of her former self”.

Mark De La Mare, of Cae Dafydd, Meifod near Welshpool, denied committing the offence but was found guilty following a trial at Mold Crown Court. The court heard the incident took place at a property in early 2023, when he touched the girl over her clothes whilst they were alone.

In a victim impact statement, the girl described how the assault had devastated her life. She lost interest in school, suffered nightmares, and self-harmed. She also attempted to take her own life.

However, nearly three years after her ordeal, she told the court she is feeling stronger and is “no longer trapped by fear and anxiety”. She said: “Day by day I’m getting closer to feeling safe, secure and confident in my own body.”

The girl’s mother said in her own statement that the incident had left her daughter “a shell of her former self”. She added that “fear had consumed (her daughter) and swallowed her, whole”.

Sentencing De La Mare today, His Honour Rhys Rowlands told him he had “succumbed to his base instincts” and has no remorse whatsoever or insight into the harm he caused his “vulnerable” victim. The judge noted that De La Mare had made the girl relive her ordeal at trial, meaning he could not receive a reduction in sentence which would have been available for a guilty plea.

De La Mare must register as a sex offender for ten years. The judge also imposed a ten-year restraining order prohibiting him from contacting his victim.