A GIRL of 14 in a care home was sexually abused by a 30-year-old man she knew as Spike after they had met on Facebook, a judge was told on Monday.

Michael David Jones, now 32, had picked up the vulnerable girl from the home and drove her to Caernarfon, where he performed a sex act on her in the back of his car.

Yesterday, Jones was jailed for three years and four months after pleading guilty to sexual activity with a child.

Judge Huw Rees told him at Caernarfon crown court: "You were the adult - she was the child."

Giving an impact statement from behind a screen the girl, now 16, claimed it had ruined her life and led to self-harming.

She said she’d been led to believe he loved her and they would get together.

"The sex was horrific," she told the court. "My life has been destroyed and I ask myself almost every day if I will ever be myself or be happy again.

She was on "re-programming therapy."

The court heard it happened in November, 2017 and when the girl's Iphone was examined it was shown she had a conversation with Jones and that it was made clear she was 14.

She had absconded after exchanging texts and putting on make up. Care staff were not allowed to use physical restraint and after she got into a Seat car they set off in pursuit but lost her, however the registration number was noted.

Police were told and Jones was arrested at his Gaerwen home just after 11pm that night. Police had seized the girl's telephone.

She knew the defendant as Spike and she'd said he'd spoken about fathering a child with her.

"She said she went with him because it was the only way she could get transport to Caernarfon," according to John Philpotts, prosecuting.

The sex act happened near the police station and Jones had dropped her off close to the justice centre.

The girl said he'd told her not to tell anyone and to delete messages on her phone and smash it into pieces.

Judge Rees criticised "the inexcusable delay" in the case caused by the police, Jones having been arrested and interviewed in November 2017 but not charged until May this year.

The case involved grooming and exchange of sexual images.

Defence barrister Elen Owen said Jones, a hard-working plant operator with a young son, had lost his own relationship and home because of what had happened.

The girl had significant difficulties and the best defence was his guilty plea.

Judge Rees told Jones: "There was a significant degree of planning over nine days, grooming and targeting of a vulnerable individual."

Indefinite sexual harm and sex offenders' orders were imposed.