Ex-church leader turned DJ jailed for breaking ban on being with children

A former church leader in a Welsh village has been jailed for breaking a ten-year ban on being with children to set himself up as a party entertainer called DJ Phoenix.

Ex-pastor Ceri John Rees, 35, began working as a DJ at caravan parks despite being a convicted sex offender banned from being around children.

Rees had practised as a priest at his village church in Lower Cwmtwrch, Swansea Valley, until he was jailed for seducing a 15-year-old girl.

But after he was released, he changed his name to Dafydd to begin a new life working as the children's entertainer DJ Phoenix.

Merthyr Crown Court heard how the convicted paedophile paraded in his colourful costume as a singer and entertainer mingling with children.

Rees spent four years in prison after a string of sex attacks on a minor at Lower Cwmtwrch Mission Church in the Swansea Valley, Powys.

He had misquoted the Bible to seduce a 15-year-old girl - telling her it was "perfectly normal to have a union of the flesh on a physical level".

He was jailed in 2009 after admitting 14 charges of sexual activity with a child.

As part of a Sexual Offences Prevention Order Rees was banned from any "social group, event or youth club" involving under 16s for 10 years after his release in 2012.

But he applied to work for an events company as DJ Phoenix - and was booked for family parties and charity events.

Rees, now of Trecynon, Aberdare, pleaded guilty to three counts of breaching a Sexual Offences Prevention Order and was jailed for two years.