A JUDGE has blasted the Crown Prosecution Service for the “scandalous” amount of time it took to bring a Gwent paedophile to justice.

Sex offender Christian Rudling was arrested in October 2018 but was not charged until recently after a catalogue of errors, Newport Crown Court was told.

Judge Daniel Williams hit out at an unnamed prosecutor after the case file was wrongly repeatedly rejected and handed back to Gwent Police.

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Rudling was caught in a sting by a paedophile hunter group called Predator Closure after one of their members posed online as a 13-year-old girl called ‘Shauna’.

The prosecutor in court, Tony Trigg - who is not the case lawyer criticised by Judge Williams - said the 48-year-old defendant, from Blaenau Gwent, first told the decoy he was 17.

The judge heard how Rudling spoke to the ‘girl’ in graphic language and kept pestering her to meet up and have sex with him.

Mr Trigg said: “He asked her to have sex with him and he said he loved her.

“When she replied that she was only 13, he said to her, ‘So what?’

“The defendant told her she was sexy.

“He asked her what kind of music she liked. He told her he lived in London.”

After a series of online chats, Predator Closure members confronted Rudling at his home in Tredegar and he was arrested by the police.

The defendant, formerly of Church Street, admitted attempting to incite a girl aged 13 to engage in sexual activity, between September and October 2018.

Mr Trigg said Rudling had no previous convictions.

The judge asked why it had taken 15 months for the case to reach court when the defendant had already confessed his guilt in interview.

He was told the file was repeatedly returned to police by the CPS over fears - concerns that were misplaced it emerged -over some of the evidence.

An exasperated Judge Williams shook his head and said the delay in such a "straightforward case" as this was “scandalous”.

He told the court: “The defendant coughed in interview, excuse my expression.”

“This isn’t a resource issue, it is somebody making bad, and repeatedly bad, decisions.

“The CPS made a series of bad decisions which caused a very long delay in this case, which has defeated the interests of justice.”

Ben Waters, mitigating, said: “The defendant has made full admissions throughout. His behaviour was appalling and it is something he very much regrets.

“He has suffered from learning difficulties since the age of five.”

Rudling was sentenced to a three-year community order and he must attend 30 sessions of the Horizon sex offender programme.

He must also complete a 30-day rehabilitation activity requirement and carry out 200 hours of unpaid work.

The defendant must register as a sex offender for five years, was made the subject of a sexual harm prevention order for the same period of time, and has to pay an £85 surcharge.