A GWENT child rapist in his 20s, who insisted that a young girl in fact "seduced" him, has had his sentence slashed by a quarter on appeal.

"Despicable" Ryan Edwards, 24, groomed his schoolgirl victim - asking her, "don't you want it to happen?".

Edwards, of St David Crescent, Newport, was jailed for 10 years at Cardiff Crown Court in April after he admitted three counts of rape of a child under 13.

Today three senior judges at London's Appeal Court upheld a sentence challenge by the sex predator - ruling his jail term "too high" and slashing it to seven-and-a-half years.

Mr Justice King said Edwards began pestering the youngster for intercourse, asking her: "Don't you want it to happen? Because I do".

He managed to persuade her to have sex with him three times.

He was caught after police discovered messages between the pair online.

Edwards initially denied any sexual contact with the girl at all, and then later insisted that she had initiated sex once.

However, he ultimately pleaded guilty to the charges on the basis that, on each occasion, he had used no force.

Despite his admissions, Edwards continued to blame the girl for what happened.

He displayed a "serious distortion and minimisation of his offending" when discussing the rapes with the author of a pre-sentence report.

He showed no remorse or victim empathy, Mr Justice King said, adding: "He believed he was the victim and that it was he who was seduced by the girl."

The judge who sentenced Edwards branded his advances "serious and despicable abuse" of a girl he had actively groomed.

But his counsel, Rupert Lowe, pointed out that he had used no force and the fact that, had the girl been a few months older, Edwards would have faced a lesser charge.

The barrister insisted that the decade-long sentence was far too harsh.

Mr Justice King, sitting with Lord Justice Davis and Mr Justice Wilkie, said: "Taking all matters into consideration, we consider that the judge here did take too high a starting point.

"We give effect to that conclusion by quashing the sentence imposed. We substitute on each count a concurrent sentence of seven-and-a-half years' imprisonment."