June 2017 Former Llandudno man convicted of historic abuse A man aged 63 convicted of sexual offences when he was a teenager has been jailed for four and a half years in his absence. Defendant Peter Keith Jones, who had an address in Woodgreen in London, was earlier convicted in his absence of two charges of rape and one charge of indecent assault when he was aged about 15. The offences occurred when he lived in the Llandudno area between 47 and 49 years ago. In addition to the prison sentence, which he will start to serve once he is arrested, he was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for life. Judge Niclas Parry, sitting at Mold Crown Court, said that he had adjourned sentence on two occasions for the warrant for his arrest to be executed. But he had not been arrested. The offences were historic and were reported to the police in 2004. It was only after extensive efforts by the police that the defendant was eventually arrested 12 years later in London in 2016. Despite a warrant for his arrest being issued at the start of his trial in May he remained at large. It was clear that the victim would want the matter concluded, he said, and he would now proceed to sentence. The court was dealing with the rape of a child under the age of 13. Jones was at the time a bully who the judge said was satisfied singled out the victim. He made sexual comments about her, and there had been two incidents one rape, one in front of a male friend. The defendant, after the rape was finished, asked the friend if he “wanted a go” but the friend declined. Judge Parry said that the presence of another added to the humiliation caused to the complainant and was an aggravating feature. The victim was vulnerable. The judge said that he had to take into account the defendant’s youth at the time. He said that the defendant himself was a child and immature when the offences occurred and if he had been prosecuted at the time then he may have been given help and not punishment. The sentencing regime would have been entirely different at the time and the starting point would have been much lower. Judge Parry said that he was bound to sentence on the basis of the guidelines that applied now. They had been serious offences which caused harm to the victim and a custodial sentence was inevitable. He could have no credit for a plea because he had forced the victim to relive what had happened in a trial.