A Pembrokeshire man who walked into Haverfordwest police station and told officers that he had sexually assaulted a young child has been handed down a nine-year prison sentence.

Swansea Crown Court heard today, Wednesday, October 26, that Daniel Jenkins, 47, of Barn Street, Haverfordwest went to the town’s police station in July and confessed that he had sexually assaulted a young girl more than a decade previously.

The court heard that Jenkins had begun by touching the child, who was six or seven years old at the time, sexually over and underneath her clothing.

He then progressed to rubbing and penetrating her vagina with his fingers and on two occasions performed oral sex on her.

The abuse happened 12 years ago when Jenkins was 35 years old.

Jenkins confessed to his crimes after his victim, who is now an adult, confronted him about it.

Jenkins admitted one charge of sexual assault of a child under 13, two charges of penetration of a child under 13 and two charges of assault by penetration.

The court heard that he had a previous conviction for very similar offences, involving an 11-year-old girl. These offences had taken place in 2002 and Jenkins had been convicted of them in 2012. He had been handed a four-year prison sentence on that occasion.

In a statement read out to the court his victim said: “I didn’t understand what was happening to me, but I knew that it felt wrong.”

She added that it had affected her subsequent relationships and that she had previously attempted suicide. She described her abuser as a ‘manipulative, narcissistic paedophile’.

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She added that she was trying to regain her lost childhood and rebuild her life and that her mental health was only just becoming stable.

Dyfed Thomas, defending, said that his client demonstrated ‘genuine remorse’ for his behaviour. He added that Jenkins had not attempted to offer any excuse for his actions.

Judge His Honour Geraint Walters sentenced Jenkins to four years in prison for the sexual assault charge and nine years for the other four charges to run concurrently.

He said that Jenkins would serve six years in prison before being released on a nine-year licence. He also made him subject of a sexual harm prevention order and said that he would remain on the sexual offences register for life.

“This is in many respects an unusual case in the sense that you are here because you initiated the police enquiry.

“You don’t need me to tell you that that which you admit you did was pretty appalling,” he said.

“In this case you sexually touched the child and, on your own admission, on more than one occasion penetrated her and had oral sex with her. This is not a single one-off assault of a child, it’s repeated “What you did has a lifelong harm and effect upon your victim.

“People don’t forget, they don’t recover, maybe they learn to live with it. That’s the best that can be achieved.”

He said that he hoped the sentence would bring an end to Jenkins ‘being inclined to behave in this way towards children’ warning him that any repeat would lead him to be categorised as a dangerous offender.

“I would use this period in custody to see whether you can work to prevent yourself being drawn into behaviour of this sort,” he told Jenkins.