A SHAMED rugby coach was caught grooming schoolgirl players when a mum found hundreds of sex messages on her daughter's phone.

James Dowle, 25, sent texts asking two underage girls for sex after coaching the under-15 and under-18 female teams.

Speaking to Welsh-language current affairs programme Y Byd ar Bedwar, the shocked mother told how she discovered sexual messages from Dowle on her 14-year-old daughter's phone after noticing a change in her behaviour.

She said coach Dowle and her daughter exchanged more than 1,300 messages in six months which started as a "bit of banter".

She said: "Then all of a sudden, out of the blue, he asks if she’s got any sexual cravings. My jaw just hit the floor.

MORE NEWS:

“I carried on reading further, to find out that he’d been looking at her Instagram photos and was referring to the fact that she’d enlarged a picture of herself, and his response was ‘I don't need to enlarge anything of mine’, he was describing the size of his penis.

"I felt physically sick. My daughter’s not safe in her own bedroom, she should be safe in her bedroom and she’s not. It was soul destroying, my world just disintegrated.”

The mum - who has not been named to protect her daughter's identity - says tried to raise her concerns with the Ynysddu Panthers club in Caerphilly, South Wales,

But she was "shocked" to be told Dowle was the child safeguarding officer.

The mum went to police and Dowle was arrested in January 2019 and later admitted six counts of sexual communication with the two girls aged 13 and 14.

Meanwhile a second mum, Sara Evans, told how she complained to the club about Dowle in 2016 and was told police were already investigating him.

Dowle was suspended from coaching at the time and sent of a safeguarding awareness session and ordered to undergo a DBS check by the Welsh Rugby Union.

But Mrs Evans said she withdrew her daughter from the club when she learned Dowle had been allowed to continue coaching.

She said: "My stomach just hit the floor, I felt physically sick that somebody that had acted in a way that was completely inappropriate for a coach to behave had been allowed back.

"He’d almost been given a slap on the wrist, told to behave. He was there in a position of authority, and as a parent I sent my daughter there thinking that she was in a safe space.”

Gwent Police said they investigated Dowle in 2016 but the evidence against him did not meet the "criminal threshold" and no offences were "formally identified".

Mrs Evans said rugby chiefs should have banned "predator" Dowle from coaching in 2016 and the offences would not have happened.

She said: "He was allowed back at the club and time has shown that his behaviour didn’t stop, he was a predator and the WRU put that predator back into a group of vulnerable girls.”

The Welsh Rugby Union said the "safety and welfare of young people" was of "paramount importance" and they had invested heavily in safeguarding.

Dowle, of Nelson, appeared at Cardiff Crown Court in August this year where he was handed a suspended sentence.

Claire Pickthall, prosecuting, told the hearing: "Both victims were members of a rugby team and Dowle was the coach.

"His messages to the 13-year-old victim were discovered in 2017 when her mother confiscated her mobile phone.

"She became aware of sexual messages between Dowle and her daughter which started on Facebook messenger.

"It was classic grooming behaviour.

"He asked her what she had done in a sexual sense. He told her: 'We should get it on'."

The court heard messages were sent over Christmas Day 2018 and into the early hours of Boxing Day.

A second victim, aged 14. was soon identified when a concerned mother came forward.

Miss Pickthall said: "She later confessed to her mother that there had been an exchange of sexual messages and that she had 'done stuff'."

Dowle was arrested in January 2019 and accepted sending messages to both his young victims.

Andrew Davies, defending, Dowle, said: "To a certain degree there does seem to have been some immaturity by the defendant.

"He has ruined his life and he accepts that that that is his own fault."

Dowle was jailed for 38 weeks, suspended for two years and ordered to pay £500 costs.

Judge Rhys Rowlands said: "As a grown man, you behaved in a wholly inappropriate way with two young girls.

"You came to know them at their local rugby club where you were one of the coaches.

"As such your behaviour clearly involved a breach of trust.

"It has had a profound impact on the girls and their families.

"You girls have enough to deal with without you using social media for your own sexual gratification.

"You knew exactly what you were doing."

In a statement, the WRU said: “The safety and welfare of young people within the community game in Wales is of paramount importance to us as a governing body and we have invested significantly in our safeguarding resources in recent years.

“We take safeguarding extremely seriously and work closely with NSPCC, Sport Wales, the police and children’s services and other sports’ governing bodies to ensure we can provide the optimum environment to enable children and young people to enjoy our sport safely."

  • A full investigation into Dowle appears on Y Byd ar Bedwar on S4C at 9pm on this evening. The programme has English subtitles.