A SOCIALLY isolated man, has been given a suspended sentence after pleading guilty to charges of pestering teenage girls to commit sex acts online.

Bryan Anthony Bowen, 26, of Borfa Green in Welshpool, admitted the two charges relating to July and October of last year after a further harassment charge was dropped.

Bowen received a 48 week prison sentence suspended for two years and he was placed on rehabilitation.

He must follow programmes devised by the probation service and as a punishment he will remain indoors between 9 pm. and 7am for three months under a tagged curfew.

Judge Rhys Rowlands, sitting at Mold Crown Court said that the defendant, who attended a special school, led an isolated existence with no friends of his own age.

He was “trying to live out some sort of fantasy”, said the judge, who told how his offending was born out of his own inadequacy.

The defendant was small in stature, and emotionally inadequate.

He had no previous convictions and the judge said that while what he had done was “very, very wrong” if he was sent to prison he would have a very hard time.

There, the defendant would be picked upon and it would be quite a difficult exercise to manage his time in prison, he explained.

After thinking about his case long and hard, the judge said that he had been persuaded to suspend the inevitable prison sentence.

But Judge Rowlands warned that if he breached the order then he would be sent to prison.

Bowen was made the subject of a 10-year sexual harm prevention order and he was ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for 10 years.

Judge Rowlands told him that girls aged 13 and 15 had “quite enough on their plates” without men like him pestering them and asking for photographs.

Prosecuting barrister Anna Price said that a girl aged 15 was shocked and angry to receive a message from the defendant asking her for sex via her Facebook page.

When arrested, his laptop was examined and that showed that he had previously approached a girl aged 13 on Facebook,

He asked her out, saying he would treat her well, but when she refused, he sent her a message asking for naked photographs of herself.

When arrested and interviewed, he said that he thought the girls were older.

Defending barrister, Dafydd Roberts, said his client had learning difficulties, had attended a special school, and would benefit greatly by assistance from the probation service to get on with his adult life.

While he was 25 at the time and therefore a significant disparity in their physical ages, in terms of maturity the gap was quite small.

While he was not work shy, and enjoyed gardening and doing up bicycles, he had never worked and he lived at home.