A MAN from Wrexham who had sex with an under-age girl has been jailed for five years.

Robert Jamie Gale was 25 when he had intercourse with a girl 12 years younger than him in a bathroom.

Gale, now 26, of Tan y Bryn in Caia Park, had denied two charges of sexual activity with a child in December 2017.

He was convicted by a Mold Crown Court jury of eight women and four men and ordered to register with the police as a sex offender for life.

Judge Rhys Rowlands made a life-time sexual harm prevention order.

A five year restraining order was also made under which he is not to approach the victim and he is not to post anything about her, her family or other named individuals on social media.

Judge Rowlands said following initial sexual activity he took her to a bathroom where he had sex with her.

At 25 he was a grown man with some experience of the world including periods of custody.

"I have no doubt that you knew the girl's age," he said.

"In the eyes of all right-thinking people she was very young at 13."

The court heard Gale did not know the girl. He had not met her before.

"You saw an opportunity to take advantage of her and took it," the judge said.

"She had been drinking. I have no doubt that you recognised that as well."

He warned that the starting prison term for such a case was one of five years but the sentence could go up to 10 years.

Judge Rowlands said Gale had been before the court with depressing regularity over the years, mainly for dishonesty.

He had a number of previous convictions and received 32 months in June 2013 for a serious offence of aggravated burglary and possessing a knife.

He had no previous convictions of a sexual nature.

Gale was on licence from custody at the time of the sexual offending and had since been recalled.

Judge Rowlands said he took into account no force had been used and no threats made before or after.

He told Gale the law was there for a purpose and the sentence should serve as a warning to other young men in their twenties "who might be tempted to take advantage of children in this way".

Barrister Simon Rogers, prosecuting, said Gale accepted he had sex with the girl but claimed she told him she was 16.

The girl told how Gale allegedly said: “None of you tell anything about this because I can get into serious trouble.”

Interviewed, he said he only later discovered she was 13 when she told him on Facebook Messenger.

When they had sex he believed she was 16, said defence barrister Henry Hills.

Following the conviction Mr Hills told the court Gale, originally from Llangollen where he was educated, had a troubled childhood.

He had been brought up in a broken home, had been in foster care and led a transient lifestyle with a lack of accommodation.

There was little stability in his life and little by way of family support.

He did have contact with his father but was unable to stay with him.

Mr Hills said Gale was not unintelligent.

"He needs to take advantage of any opportunities available to him within the prison to work towards making something of his life," he said.

"It has been pretty desperate up to now."