July 2023

Man jailed for raping young boy more than 20 years ago

A man has been jailed for multiple rapes of a young boy he carried out more than two decades ago.

Dafydd Rees was aged around 15 when he carried out the sexual attacks but it was not until his victim became a dad, and his son approached the age he had been when he was abused, that he came forward to report what happened.

A judge at Swansea Crown Court said it was not an easy case to sentence as he had to put himself in the position of a judge sentencing the defendant at the time of the offending – when Rees was himself a youth – rather than 20 years later.

Rees, aged 38, of College Street, Ammanford, had previously been convicted at trial of multiple rapes of a child under 13 and of indecently assaulting the same child when he returned to the dock for sentencing.

The offences took place between the late 1990s and early 2000s when Rees was aged 15. His victim was aged 11 or 12.

In an impact statement which was read to the court the victim said that when the abuse first happened he felt “scared, upset and disgusted” and knew it was “wrong” but felt unable to talk anyone about it because he was worried he would get into trouble.

He said that in his teenage life he had always felt that emotional situations were “difficult” and that “whenever I was overwhelmed, I felt I’d react and suffer bouts of anxiety”.

Judge Geraint Walters told the defendant he had taken advantage of his young victim “every time the opportunity arose” and that by then denying the offending he had made the victim go through a trial and “relive it all over again”.

He said he had read and heard about the defendant’s difficult childhood, including the absence of his mother for long periods, but said nothing could explain his behaviour.

The judge said cases such as the one before the court were difficult to sentence given the length of time that had passed since the offending, the age of the defendant at the time, and the different sexual offending legislation in place at the time.

He said following the Court of Appeal the approach he had to take to sentencing was to put himself in the position of a judge passing sentencing on the defendant at the time of the offending.

Rees was sentenced to 12 months in custody – he will serve up to half that sentence in custody before being released on licence to serve the remainder in the community.

The defendant will be on the sex offenders register for the next 10 years.

Dyfed-Powys Police was unable to provide a custody photograph of the defendant.