A SELF-employed former forestry worker is facing years in jail after a jury convicted him of historical sex offences against two young girls in the Llandysul area.

Jonathan Clarke, aged 43, had called the girls liars and denied ever touching them.

But after a trial at Swansea crown court, Clarke, who gave his address in court as Llanddarog, near Carmarthen, was found guilty unanimously of sexually assaulting one of the girls 10 times and the other girl on one occasion.

Clarke was immediately remanded into custody and warned he would receive a prison sentence "of some length".

Judge Paul Thomas said Clarke's offending was so serious he would have to decide whether to pass an extended sentence, which could affect the number of years he would be on licence and liable to be recalled after he had completed the custodial element of the sentence.

The court had heard how the offences were committed in the Llandysul area before 2002.

One of the girls told the jury how Clarke regularly performed sex acts on her.

The other told how Clarke felt her breasts but she was more assertive and told him "where to go".

Clarke claimed he had never been alone with either girl let alone touched them intimately.

The jury heard of an incident when Clarke visited the workplace of a man who knew one of the victims.

"I told him he had ten seconds to leave," he said.

It was significant, said Dyfed Thomas, prosecuting, that Clarke replied, "I am not a paedophile. It was....." before naming another man.

Following the verdicts, Judge Thomas said he would sentence Clarke on May 20 to allow time for a probation officer to prepare a report into his background.

But he warned Clarke that the outcome was inevitable, it was just a question of how long.