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A Caerphilly tattooist has been jailed after he illegally gave a 16-year-old girl a free inking and cash in exchange for having sex in his parlour.

Elvis Presley impersonator Adrian Edwards, 57, had sex in his piercing room after the young girl – underage for a tattoo – pleaded with him to give her an inking.

The sex took place in the piercing room of his tattoo parlour, the now closed Studio One, on Piccadilly Square.

Newport Crown Court heard Edwards later had intercourse and oral sex with the girl a number of times.

The girl told the court the sex happened before she was 18-years-old and that it “never should have happened.”

She said: “I asked him for a tattoo. I told him I wouldn’t tell anyone because I was under-age.

“I told him I would do anything for a tattoo. I didn’t mean like that.”

She tearfully told the court she had sex with Edwards in his piercing room before having her first tattoo.

She said she went on to have sex with Edwards many more times and he would often give her money after.

The court heard Edwards gave his victim money after sex – and she used the cash to buy alcohol and hair extensions. Edwards continued paying the victim for sex after she turned 18-years-old.

But the jury were told only to consider alleged crimes before her 18th birthday when she was too young to accept payment for sex.

The court heard she contacted the police in 2019 and was interviewed about her allegations.

Edwards, of Newport, claimed the girl asked him for money on a number of occasions before they had sex, and he had given £100.

Of the three charges of paying a child under 18 for sex, which he denied, Edwards was found guilty of two.

He had told police he believed what he had been doing wasn’t wrong. He had used prostitutes in the past and saw this in a similar light.

Edwards was handed a 28-month prison term and a ten-year restraining order banning him from contact with the victim.

Recorder Dyfed Llion Thomas, told Edwards he had taken advantage of a child and treated her as a sex worker.