A JOGGER who exposed himself to a schoolgirl he conned into going running with him has been jailed for four years.

Family friend Liam Mann, 24, convinced his 14-year-old victim and her mother that he was serious about keeping fit.

But the frantic teenager was forced to flee when Mann, who was kitted out in jogging gear, exposed himself to her while out in the countryside.

The former Amman Valley Comprehensive schoolboy continued to bare himself for up to 15 minutes, jogging close to the girl and encouraging her to touch him.

Judge Paul Thomas QC described Mann's behaviour as "grotesquely sick" as he jailed him at Swansea Crown Court.

He said that he regarded earlier uneventful runs with the girl, who cannot be named, as evidence of "grooming."

Brian Simpson, prosecuting, said Mann called at the girl's home in Ammanford, in September, for the latest pre-arranged rural run.

After he exposed himself his distraught victim gradually managed to escape by "effectively running away from him."

But she arrived home too upset to explain what had happened until Mann turned up a few minutes later, the court heard.

She was then able to speak lucidly enough to her mother for her to call in the police who immediately began hunting for him.

Mann, a self-employed jet wash patio cleaner, of St Clears, near Carmarthen, handed himself in to the police and admitted what he had done.

He later made more serious admissions concerning unrelated sexual abuse of a younger child to whom he had access over a period of time.

He was sentenced after admitting one count of causing or initiating a child to engage in sexual activity.

He also admitted a single count of sexual assault on a minor. He was formally found not guilty of another identical charge.

Judge Thomas said: "You asked her to go with you running, which she did, no doubt believing she was safe to do so. She put her trust in you, as did her family.

"It was not the first time you took her out for a run, in my view there was an element of grooming here, or at least planning."

Passing sentence he said Mann would also be put on the sex offenders register indefinitely and would be made the subject of an indefinite sex offenders prevention order.