A Blaenau Ffestiniog pensioner has been jailed for 12 years after admitting three historic charges of rape on a female.

Glyn Vaughan Jones, 69, of Wynne Road, was said by his barrister Jonathan Austin to have been “very involved in the local community”.

His interests included a choir, poetry and the Eisteddfod.

Mr Austin produced a number of testimonials.

“He’s always been aware of the consequences of this being brought before the court,” he added.

Ffion Tomos, prosecuting at Caernarfon Crown Court on Friday, said they were specimen counts which had occurred over a three-year period.

Jones had been arrested last November.

He’d said “as the years passed he realised how serious his actions were and wished he could turn back the clock”.

Judge Huw Rees told Jones that it was “a considerable fall from grace” for someone who had been accepted as a decent man.

He imposed indefinite Sex Offenders’ and Sexual Harm Prevention Orders and pointed out that the victim had been vulnerable.

“You will be released when the Parole Board is satisfied it is not necessary for the protection of the public that you are detained in custody,” the judge explained.