Update: Jonathan Morgan, now 45 years old is now living in Marloes in Haverfordwest, Wales. 

Was Released in 2011

July 2008

Ex-soldier jailed for abusing girls

A PAEDOPHILE soldier who believed he had got away with sex assaults on a young girl a decade ago was finally brought to justice on Friday ­ and jailed for seven years.

Jonathan Morgan, aged 38, of Berkrolles Avene, St Athan, was quizzed after a six-year-old girl made complaints against him in 1998.

Police did not prosecute him at the time because of lack of evidence, and Morgan walked free, the court heard how Morgan – originally from Pembrokeshire but who committed his offences when living in Surrey and South Wales – befriended the families of his three young victims, before exploiting children as young as six.

But last year a second child made new sexual assault allegations, and a third girl told police how he had groomed her for sex with gifts including a Playboy necklace.

Morgan could not escape again, with a court finding him guilty of nine counts of sexual offences and downloading indecent photos of children.

Cardiff Crown Court heard that the first offences were committed when Morgan was based at Deepcut Army barracks in Surrey, and the later ones after he had moved to South Wales.

Prosecutor Dan Williams said: “They were two similar complaints made nine years apart by two children living hundreds of miles apart and who had never met.”

When police arrested him and searched his home they found 134 illegal pornographic images on a computer, some showing children being raped.

The youngest victim in the pictures was just five and was recognised by a police officer as the same child she had seen in a separate investigation.

Morgan had told two girls he groomed and sexually assaulted that they would be the ones in trouble if they told their parents.

One of his court orders includes banning him from using a computer to access the internet and chatrooms

Mr Williams said that Morgan, a married man with two sons, had an unhealthy and sexual interest in little girls that went back years.

Ten years ago the six-year-old had accused him of exposing himself to her dozens of times, touching her and saying ‘do you promise not to tell anyone?’

Now a teenager, the girl gave evidence against Morgan and faced him across the courtroom to watch the video interview she had given as a small child.

Mr Williams said it was fortunate that although it was decided not to proceed with a prosecution then, that a decision had been taken to ensure her evidence was preserved.

The court heard that the assaults took place at Morgan¹s homes ­ on one occasion in a bedroom.

Morgan left the Royal Logistics Corps where he served as a driver in Kosovo and Northern Ireland, for a job as a brewery drayman in South Wales. He had denied a total of 13 charges. He was acquitted on one and was found not guilty on three others on the direction of the judge.

When the girls’ allegations were being put to him in court he repeated ‘never happened, never happened’.

He said the finding of the computer images had come as a complete shock to him and claimed he didn¹t know how they had got there.

Judge Christopher Llewellyn-Jones told Morgan: “Police investigated in 1998 but a decision was taken not to prosecute.

“| have no doubt you thought you had got away with it.”

Morgan was ordered to register as a sex offender for life when he is released from prison.