Abuser 'gave girls drugs'

Some of the girls were plied with cannabis

A north Wales man has been placed on the sex register for life and jailed for four years after being convicted of a series of sex offences.

Defendant Michael David Stevenson, 44, denied a total of 11 charges of indecent assault against five different girls.

Prosecutor Mr David Potter said that Stevenson had groomed the girls, befriended them, and gave some of them cannabis.

Stevenson, formerly of Deeside, had lived with his mother in Rhuddlan since the allegations were made, the court heard.

The jury convicted him of nine of the 11 charges.

Judge Merfyn Hughes QC ordered that two remaining charges should remain on the file, along with two of allowing premises to be used for the smoking of cannabis.

Judge Hughes told Stevenson that he had been convicted of nine counts of indecent assault against young girls. "You will not need me to tell you that this court regards such conduct as a very serious matter," he said.

There was no mitigation other than his previous good character, he said.

"The fact that you have not served a previous prison sentence will make this sentence which I now impose very much harder to bear. You have only yourself to blame for that," he added.

Stevenson will now have to report his address to the police for the rest of his life.

Judge Hughes said that he would not make any orders for compensation in view of the custodial sentences but he said that he had no doubt at all that he had ruined the lives of some of the girls for a long time to come.