Jacob Brady, 23, who was living in the UK while awaiting sentence, admitted five counts of sexually touching a child and five of possessing indecent images of children.
He was sentenced to a total of three years and 10 months for the sexual touching, and six months, consecutive, for the indecent images.
Judge Catherine Fooks said that while the defendant got credit for entering his guilty pleas at the earliest opportunity there were numerous and serious aggravating factors in this case.
His offending had involved an abuse of a position of trust through a sports club and there had been an element of planning and grooming. Two of the offences had involved the most serious form of sexual touching.
The court also had to consider the effect that it had had on his victim, she said.
Crown Advocate Jenny McVeigh told the court how the defendant committed the offences.
The sexual touching matters were done on the same day in September 2024 in his car at two separate locations.
The girl told police later how Brady had sent her messages on Snapchat which were self-deleting. They were normal at first before they starting getting ‘weird’, which had made her uncomfortable. When she reminded him of her age he told her to forget it. She felt she was unable to tell her family what had happened and could only do so later by writing it down. DNA evidence linked him to the sexual touching.
Post-incident, the defendant and his partner went to Australia on holiday. While there he messaged the girl to ask her what was wrong, and told her to keep her mouth shut.
He returned to Guernsey in October and was arrested the following month. During a search of his home a number of electronic devices were found and the indecent images were found on two of them. He exercised his right to remain silent in the three interviews that followed. He had no previous convictions.
Indecent images of children are graded on a C to A ascending scale in terms of their seriousness and the total numbers in this case were 20, four and two respectively. None of the images were of the girl he sexually touched.
In a victim impact statement that was read to the court, the girl spoke of how the offending had had a negative impact on her mental health. Her anxiety had been rapidly spiked and she had not wanted to leave the house and go out with friends.
Her family life had been affected as she was always on edge. She was still in disbelief over what Brady had done.
Defending, Advocate Sam Maindonald said Brady was a well-educated man who had an engineering degree.
The probation report referred to what had happened to him while he was at school and university. Those offences had not been reported to police at the time, for which there was normally a reason.
When he came to Guernsey he realised that he had been damaged by those experiences for which he had sought help, but he did not meet the criteria to get it.
While he might not agree with all of the facts that were presented, he did not want to cause further suffering to the girl and her family. He was taking full responsibility for his actions for which he was ashamed and remorseful.
He had been addressing his offending since this incident and intended to continue doing so.
Brady will be subject to notification requirements for five years. For the sexual touching, on his release from prison an extended sentence licence will apply for three years.