A PONTYPOOL pensioner who went missing before being charged with sexual offences against a young girl has been jailed for ten years.

Harry Spragg, 79, pleaded guilty to two counts of rape, two counts of engaging in sexual activity with a child and three counts of taking indecent photographs of a child - all relating to a girl under 13.

Passing sentence at Newport Crown Court on Friday, Judge William Gaskell said: “You are a man of previous good character who is now 79.

“She was wholly unaware of the implications of what you did to her. But as she is getting older and having a greater realisation of what you did it is likely to become an oppression for her.

“What you did in my judgement will have a really long term effect on her.”

This case came to court not long after Gwent Police issued a missing persons appeal stating that Spragg had been reported missing from his home on November 8, 2012.

Defending Spragg, Mary Parry Evans has said the episode had been “ so out of character it was unbelievable.”

“You can’t explain this behaviour,” she said.

“This is a 79-year-old man who has a completely clean record.”

Mrs Parry Evans said there had been stresses in his life around the time of the offences but that those did not mitigate for what he had done.

She said: “He knows this is all his own fault.”

Spragg, of Laburnum Drive, New Inn, was sentenced to ten years for each of the rapes, two years for each of the offences of inciting a child to engage in sexual activity and three years for each of the counts of taking indecent photographs. All the sentences were set to run concurrently.