A 64-year-old St Briavels man who persuaded a five-year-old girl to touch him sexually wept as he was jailed for three years four months at Gloucester Crown Court on Monday.

Bryn Charles, of Smithville Close, admitted inciting the little girl to touch him and then asking her not to tell anyone because it was their ’little secret’.

Two days later, however, on October 28 last year, the girl told her grandmother what had happened and Charles was arrested.

Prosecutor Janine Wood said "He admitted the offence immediately. He said he didn’t know why he had done it.”

Charles broke down crying in the dock as the prosecutor went on to give more details of the case and read out a statement from the little girl’s mother.

Mrs Wood said Charles had unrelated previous convictions going back many years to the 1970s.

However, she said, there was a relevant incident in October 2015 when he was cautioned by the police for indecently exposing himself to an adult.

Judge Michael Cullum told Charles: "You didn’t just step over the mark - there is no mark. There is an enormous wall between what is right and wrong.

"Your abuse of this girl is bound to have an effect on her.”

The judge jailed Charles for three years four months and ordered him to sign the sex offender register for the rest of his life. He also barred Charles from working with children in either a professional or voluntary capacity.