A NARBERTH man who "met" a teenager for sex via an internet chat room has been cleared of a charge of raping her.

David Benjamin Bodfish, 23, was also cleared of sexually assaulting her.

Mr Bodfish, of Clearbrook Cottage, Pont Shan, had always denied the allegations.

On July 27, a jury at Swansea crown court heard how Mr Bodfish travelled by train to Newport in Gwent to meet the girl.

She told the court, from behind screens, that during his third visit he put his hands down the front of her trousers.

"I tried to move his hand and he got really aggressive and told me to remove my hand.

"I was scared and upset and started crying. He said he was sorry," she added.

Two weeks later they met again and Mr Bodfish took off her trousers and began to touch her intimately, but she said, "No”.

The teenager said she and her family later went on holiday to Freshwater East and she again met up with Mr Bodfish.

On this occasion, she said, he had full sexual intercourse with her.

Dyfed Thomas, the barrister representing Mr Bodfish, asked her why she would arrange to meet Bodfish in Freshwater East if he had already sexually assaulted her.

She replied that she had been young and stupid.

She also agreed that she had not made an official complaint until a new boyfriend had encouraged her to do so.

Mr Bodfish told the jury that the incidents of sexual contact had indeed taken place, but with her consent.

He said they had swapped messages of a sexual nature on the website.

He agreed he had "tried it on" during a meeting with her in Newport but had stopped when she had asked him to.

About the sexual intercourse while she was on holiday, Mr Bodfish said the teenager's father had collected him from a railway station so that he could meet up with her again.

Bodfish told the jury that sexual intercourse had taken place on more occasions than the single time complained of.

The jury returned unanimous not guilty verdicts after deliberating for minutes.

Mr Bodfish left court a free man, having been advised by Judge Geraint Walters to avoid a combination of girls and the internet.