An unrepentant sex offender has been jailed for five years for grooming and having sex with a vulnerable 15-year-old girl.

Ryan Bowen exploited his victim’s low self-esteem and wooed her by telling her she was beautiful and he found her attractive.

She was taken in by his charm and agreed to have sex with him, although the encounter lasted only a few seconds when she told him to stop.

He also assaulted her repeatedly while giving her lifts in his car and on one occasion made her touch his genitals as he was driving.

Bowen showed no remorse when he was arrested and told a probation officer he did not think he had done anything wrong. After his sentence he told the judge ’sweet’.

Bowen, formerly of Bunting Close, Teignmouth, but now of Totnes Road, Paignton, admitted three counts of sexual activity with a child and was jailed for five years by Recorder Mr Donald Tait at Exeter Crown Court.

He was also ordered to sign on the sex offenders’ register and made subject to a sexual harm prevention order which will restrict his future access to children.

The judge told him: ’The pre-sentence report does not make happy reading at all. Despite your guilty pleas you’ve maintained denials and spoken disparagingly of the victim and her family.

’You’ve made threats about what you might do to other people if you get a custodial sentence and you are at a high risk of sexual reconviction.’

Mr David Sapiecha, prosecuting, said Bowen met the girl while he was living in Teignmouth and carried on seeing her after he moved to Paignton. At the time of the offences in 2013 to 2014 she was 15 and he was 21 or 22.

He said: ’The victim had low self-esteem and thought of herself at the time as being overweight. She was shocked he could find her attractive. He told her she was beautiful and she was attracted to him.

’He was aware of that and exploited her feelings to engage in sexual activity. We say it was grooming.’

Miss Emily Pitts, mitigating, said all the activity was consensual and he does accept there was any element of grooming. She said the disparity of age at the time was not as great as in some cases.