A CONVICTED rapist who is 30 pretended to be 17 so he could go out with a teenage girl during an “elaborate deception”.

Paedophile Louis Summers, formerly known as Louis Beagan, even “celebrated his 18th birthday” with her and her family as part of the ruse.

They had no idea that the defendant from Newport was a sex offender and actually 12 years older than what he said he was.

Summers broke the terms of a sexual harm prevention order by staying overnight at the 16-year-old girl’s home where two boys under the age of 16 were staying.

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He was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order in 2018 after being caught by paedophile hunter groups trying to contact underage girls.

Summers also has a previous conviction from 2014 for rape and has continually breached his current sexual harm prevention order.

James Evans, prosecuting, said: “This offence came to light when the defendant was in a relationship with a lady who noticed that he was behaving strangely.

“He was concealing things when she came into the room and she found a mobile phone that had been concealed in her sofa.

“When he was asleep, she took the SIM card from it so she was able to see what was going on and she found that he was communicating with a girl who she contacted.

“This girl described herself as being his girlfriend and she appeared to be very shocked that he was 30 years of age.”

Cardiff Crown Court heard that Summers told this girl he was 17 when they met and “turned 18 during the relationship”.

Mr Evans added: “It appears that he conducted a fairly elaborate deception in saying that he was only 17 years of age.

“In fact, they all celebrated his 18th birthday, which was a complete fiction, which is perhaps shows the degree he's prepared to go to to deceive people.”

Summers pleaded guilty to being in breach of a sexual harm prevention order.

Nigel Fryer representing him said his client’ s best mitigation was his early guilty plea.

Judge Jeremy Jenkins told Summers: “You have a very worrying antecedent history.

“It shows that there are 11 previous sexual offences recorded against you, including rape, engaging and attempting to engage in sexual communications with children and causing and inciting a female under 16 to engage in sexual activity.

“You have a repeated refusal to acknowledge and comply with a sexual harm prevention order.”
The defendant was jailed for 22 months.