A NEWPORT man who admitted raping a child under 13 was jailed for 10 years.

Ryan Edwards, 24, of St David’s Crescent, persuaded the girl to get into a compromising situation with him in October last year, when he was then 23, Cardiff Crown Court heard.

Ieuan Bennett, prosecuting, told the court that in interview the victim said she’d asked the defendant to “stop because it was going too far”.

She remembers the defendant asking her: “Don’t you want it to happen? Because I do.” She remembers telling him “I don’t know because, like, I don’t know – you’re meant to have your first time with someone special”.

“She remembers the defendant telling her “Yeah but it doesn’t matter”.

“It of course is rape because she was under 13 and could not give consent. No doubt of course the defendant knew her age.

“There’s no claim he threatened her or used any violence.”

Edwards pleaded guilty to three counts of rape of a child under 13.

Rupert Lowe, defending, said: “He’s not somebody who will do anything like this again. This was an immature young man with no previous record and from a good family.

“He was the adult, she was the child. She was reciprocating, but the responsibility was entirely his.”

Judge Philip Richards told Edwards: “You were in a far more powerful position – you should have been behaving as an example to her. Instead you abused her. There was a gross abuse of trust.”

He sentenced Edwards to 10 years in prison for each of the three counts, to run concurrently.

Edwards was also told to pay a £120 victim surcharge and was barred from working with children and must register as a sex offender for life.