A Rhyl man who took indecent pictures of sleeping teenage girl but then blamed an entirely innocent man has been convicted and jailed for a total of three years and nine months.

Defendant Aaron Hughes, 23, who at the time was staying at The Imperial Hotel in the resort, was also convicted of possessing 140 indecent images of children, some of tots as young as two, which he had downloaded from the internet.

Mold Crown Court heard how Hughes had taken pictures of the partially naked 13-year-old girl which showed her face and breasts.

Judge Timothy Petts told him that he had taken advantage of her while she slept.

Hughes was ordered to register with the police as a se. offender for life.

He received two years for taking the pictures of the 13-year-old and a consecutive 15 month sentence for downloading 140 images - 33 category A

images - the most serious.

But he received an addition six months for breaching a suspended sentence.

The judge told the defendant that he had been convicted "on compelling evidence."

He said: "You denied responsibility throughout and indeed you sought to blame a friend for this offending."

But clearly the jury saw through that, the judge said.

In January 2017 he had been given a suspended sentence for assaulting his then girlfriend and her mother.

Judge Petts said that his position was aggravated by a number of factors.

He blamed another for taking images of the sleeping girl, he concealed evidence by hiding it away on his phone, and there were a high number of

indecent images downloaded from the internet some of them involving children as young as two years of age.

"For every image there is a child out there who is a victim of abuse," the judge said.

He had committed offences over a period of time and continued to offend after his first phone was seized by the police.

"You blames another for your own crimes," he said.

The defendant had previous convictions but nothing of a sexual nature.

After the unanimous verdicts defending barrister Simon Rogers said that mercifully, it appeared that the child victim was completely unaware that the photographs had been taken.

There were cases where children were asked to pose and was fully aware of what was going on.

"This is not that type of case," he said.

He was still young, it would be his first period of imprisonment, and it would be difficult for him.

The defendant was a young man not without difficulties.

He had been diagnosed with autism at the age of eight and he was on medication for anxiety and depression.

His client knew that it had to be custody.

They were unpleasant offences by their very nature.

But Mr Rogers said that a sentence of any length would be extremely difficult for him bearing in mind the problems that he had.

His father had supported him throughout and the hope was that on his release the defendant would move in with his father away from the area

and they had plans to set up in business together.

he pictures were found in a secret file on one of two Samsung mobile phones taken by police in two separate searches.

Prosecuting barrister Sion ap Mihangel said the images were found in a secret file on one of two Samsung mobile phones seized by police during

two separate searches

Hughes claimed one of the phones was not his, despite the fact it said "Welcome Aaron to your new phone" when it was switched on.

He alleged his friend, a neighbour of his at the Imperial Hotel, had set it up on purpose to implicate him before also accusing him of taking pictures of the young girl as she slept.