A CWMANN sex offender who targeted teenage girls just months after being released from prison has been handed an extended sentence.

Ethan Rich, 24, from Neuadd Fach, will serve nine years and nine months behind bars followed by an extended three year licence period after being classified as a 'dangerous offender' by Swansea Crown Court.

Prosecutor, Hannah George, told the court that Rich was jailed for child sexual offences in August 2020.

The offending involved the defendant recording video calls with the child during which he got his victim to perform sex acts on herself.

As part of that 2020 sentence he was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order which included having to register the ownership of phones and a ban on having social media and chat website accounts in names which had not been approved by the police.

Rich was released from prison in November 2021, but within two months had been recalled due to concerns over his contact with females on social media.

Released again in May 2023, police found an unregistered phone when they visited the caravan he was living in behind his mother’s house in August.

Officers also discovered had been staying at an address in Cellan without notifying the authorities.

Rich was working as a shepherd but had not disclosed his sexual convictions to his employer.

In October police received intelligence that Rich had been communicating with a 14-year-old girl and officers went to arrest him.

The defendant's phone was seized and while officers were arresting him they heard another mobile vibrating.

Police asked him if he had another mobile and he said he had not but officers found the unregistered phone under his seat.

An examination of the phones found Rich had accounts on a number of platforms such as WhatsApp, Telegram, and Snapchat in a variety of names including Bob Ross.

They also found a number of recordings of video calls with a 14-year-old girl during which Rich encouraged the child to perform sex acts.

Rich previously admitted 17 offences including engaging sexual communication with a child, possession of indecent images and several breaches of his sex offender registration requirements.

He has 12 previous convictions for 18 offences including arson, causing or inciting a child to engage in sexual activity, engaging in sexual activity in the presence of a child, and making indecent images of a child.

In defence, Georgia Donohue said Rich had been diagnosed with ADHD and his ‘autism has left him struggling to form relationships’.

She added that Rich was remorseful for the ‘social scrutiny’ his family has come under and how he plans to join the Foreign Legion upon his release.

Judge Paul Thomas KC told Rich it was clear that despite the great efforts being put in by the criminal justice system to get him to change his ways "you have learned nothing – or at least nothing positive".

Rich was given a 12-year-and-nine-month extended sentence comprising nine years and nine months in custody followed by a three-year extended licence period.