Ryan Thomas (Image: Gwent Police)
Last Updated: 2 minutes ago
A man with a lengthy history of sexual offending has been locked up after being convicted in two separate trials of attacks on a 14-year-old girl and an adult woman.
Ryan Thomas, 33, of Garn Street, Abercarn, Caerphilly, was sentenced to 13 months at Cardiff Crown Court. He had denied both offences but was found guilty by juries in each case.
The assault on a 14-year-old
The first offence took place in April 2022. Thomas approached a teenage girl at a supermarket before following her back to her home, where he kissed and hugged her at her front door. He was convicted by a jury of sexually touching a girl aged 14.
The cyberflashing offence
While awaiting sentence for that assault, Thomas committed a second offence on 21 September last year. He sent an adult woman an image of his erect penis, captioned: “I’ve taken Viagra and I’ve been hard for some considerable time.”
Prosecutor Ieuan Bennett relayed the caption to Cardiff Crown Court. A jury convicted Thomas of sending a photograph or film of genitals to cause alarm, distress or humiliation.
Victim impact statements
The teenage girl told the court: “I feel happy that he has been convicted and that justice has been served. “I still feel scared of him for what he did. “Being in court was extremely stressful for me. “I don’t want to see him again.”
The woman who received the unsolicited image described it as “vulgar and crass”, adding: “It was shocking and repulsive and I felt disgusted.
“It sent shockwaves through me.
“I find myself constantly looking over my shoulder.”
A long history of offending
Thomas’s record stretches across three countries. He was deported from Australia in 2016 following convictions for sexual assault and indecent exposure. Within months of returning, he exposed himself in the early hours of the morning to a female student as she walked home from her part-time bar job on Mill Lane, Cardiff.
The student later identified him at an identity parade, but Thomas had already fled the UK. He was eventually detained by the Garda on Lower O’Connell Street in Dublin, going on to serve a prison term in the Republic of Ireland for sexual assault and drug-related matters. He subsequently served time in the UK for the Cardiff exposure offence.
In 2022, he was jailed for 10 months for failing to comply with sex offender notification requirements after securing a place at Imperial College London and relocating to the capital without informing police.
Defence arguments
Representing him, Jeffrey Jones asked the court to keep any custodial term “as short as possible”.
Sentencing
Judge Matthew Porter-Bryant was unsparing in his assessment, telling the defendant: “You have an ingrained inclination towards sex offending.
“Your antecedent record is appalling.”
The judge noted that Thomas had been assessed as posing “a very high risk of harm to children”.
Thomas was jailed for 13 months. He must register as a sex offender for 10 years and is subject to a sexual harm prevention order for the same period. Restraining orders lasting 10 years were also imposed, barring him from contacting his two victims and a third female.
