A Clynderwen man who trawled the internet for underage girls and talked four of them into meeting up for sex has been jailed today (Thursday).

Joseph Robert Foster, aged 21, kept a bottle of vodka in his car hoping it would help persuade the girls to have sex with him.

Foster, of Glyndwr, Llangolman, had full sexual intercourse with one of the teenagers on a beach and met another while she was still wearing her school uniform.

He admitted three offences of meeting 15 year-old girls following sexual grooming, and three of taking part in sexual activities with them, between June 1, 2014, and December 31, 2014.

Foster also admitted meeting a fourth girl of the same age following sexual grooming and today he was jailed for two years and three months.

Paul Hobson, prosecuting, told Swansea crown court how Foster “friended” the girls on their Facebook pages and sent them sexually explicit messages.

One girl received a photograph of his penis.

Foster was arrested in October, 2014, and an examination of his mobile telephone revealed that he had been boasting about what he had done.

Despite his arrest, said Mr Hobson, he continued to make contact with girls over the internet.

But he was not charged until April, 2016, and Judge Peter Heywood criticised Dyfed-Powys police for the time it had taken to bring the case to court.

Judge Heywood said he had made repeated observations about delays in cases from west Wales and he hoped his remarks would finally reach “those in high places” within Dyfed-Powys police.

Foster’s barrister, Carina Hughes, said he had been willing to enter pleas of guilty a year and a half ago.

She said the girls had not been naive and they had willingly joined in the exchange of messages.

The sexual activity, she added, had been minimal apart from the one incident of sexual intercourse.

Judge Heywood said he accepted that, to some extent, the girls had been “worldly wise” but young girls needed to be protected from themselves.

He said he also accepted that Foster had been only 19 at the time and that he had been waiting a long time to go to jail.

But Foster had used alcohol in some of the offending and only an immediate jail sentence was justified.