March 2018 Aberystwyth man jailed for sexually abusing three girls A 39-year-old man has been jailed for 15 years for a series of sexual offences against three girls. Owain Llyr Thomas, from Aberystwyth, was found guilty of 23 charges, including sexual assault of a person under the age of 13, in February. The offences took place between 1995 and 2007 and one of his victims was under five when the abuse started. Sentencing him at Swansea Crown Court, Judge Mervyn Hughes said the offences were “significant and serious”. Thomas must serve a minimum of seven-and-a-half years in prison. Speaking of the effect of the offences on the victims, the judge told Thomas: “It can be said that you’ve almost destroyed their lives.” Mandy Tobias, of the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “Owain Llyr Thomas subjected three very young girls to sexual abuse, two of them repeatedly. “There is only one explanation why he did so, and that was for his own pleasure.” February 2018 Prison for child sex offender AN Aberystwyth child sex offender has been warned he will receive a “considerable and lengthy” prison sentence after he was convicted of sexual molesting three young girls. Owain Llyr Thomas, 39, of Garth Celyn, St Davids Road, had denied all the charges against him but a jury at Swansea Crown Court returned unanimous guilty verdicts after only one hour of deliberation. Catherine Richards, prosecuting, said his victims had “buried” what he had done to them until later in life when they began to confide in adults they trusted. After his arrest Thomas refused to answer police questions but gave officers a prepared statement in which he claimed all the allegations had been false. Following the verdicts, Judge T Mervyn Hughes immediately remanded Thomas to jail. The offending had been serious, he added, and only a “considerable and lengthy” prison sentence could be the outcome. Thomas will be sentenced in March.