A FORMER Llandybie man currently serving a 17-year jail sentence for child sex offences has been found guilty of raping a young girl after his victim read of his earlier conviction in the South Wales Guardian.

Philip Adrian Morgan, aged 46, is now in danger of receiving a life sentence.

Morgan, who refused to take part in the latest trial, was convicted this afternoon (Thursday, October 9) of sexually assaulting a girl when she was aged about nine and of later raping her.

The fresh crimes came to light after the Guardian revealed in September, 2013, that he had been jailed for 17 years for similar offences against a different girl.

The latest girl, now a woman, read the story and told a friend sitting next to her, “He did the same to me when I was a child.”

She made a formal complaint to police and Morgan was arrested again.

He denied the accusations during police interviews but refused to attend Swansea crown court for his trial.

On the first day he stayed in a cell below the court room and for the rest of the trial refused to leave his prison cell.

After the verdicts, Judge Huw Davies ordered a probation officer to prepare a report addressing the question of just how dangerous Morgan was.

Judge Davies said he would have to consider a life sentence, which Morgan would serve until the Secretary of State determined that he was no longer dangerous to woman and young girls.

Morgan’s barrister, Frank Phillips, said he had already been told about the consequences of guilty verdicts.

Morgan will be sentenced on November 7.

Judge Davies told the jury they had been required to determine an unusual trial, during which they had not got to see Morgan or to hear from him.

But it had been his choice not to offer any evidence to contradict what the woman had said.