Gary Thomas is banned from using the internet and mobile phones

The man who persuaded the girl to have sex with him was jailed for 18 months and had a restraining order placed on him, banning him from using the internet or mobile phones for five years.

The child's mother, from the Welshpool area, has since spoken exclusively to BBC Wales about how he ruined their lives.

Gary Geoffrey Thomas, 37, lured the teenager into having sex with him after seducing her in an internet chatroom.

He was sentenced at Mold Crown Court after the court heard how he had sex with the youngster - one of 15 underage girls he had met in internet chatrooms.

Detectives asked the court for the order after they discovered Thomas - described as "predatory" - had made more than 1,000 calls on his mobile phone to schoolgirls.

It emerged in court that Thomas, a railway guard from Swadlincote, Derbyshire, visited the girl at her home when her mother was working and they had sex in her bedroom.

He also took the underage teenager to a bed-and-breakfast hotel, where he posed as her father.

The internet has helped paedophiles find victims

The girl's mother called the police when she found an intimate text message from Thomas to her daughter.

On Friday, her mother spoke for the first time of her fury at what had happened.

"The internet at the moment is paedophile paradise," she said.

"The law seems to be very slow in catching up with technology, when it should be in tune with it.

"Until then, it remains a danger."

The mother urged other parents to monitor their children's use of the internet.

"Maybe parents need to be more aware that there are men out there that can manipulate kids on the internet," she added.

The whole experience had scarred both her and her daugher.

"He is an evil man," she said. "Psychologically and emotionally, the damage he has done will take much more than 18 months to repair.

"His sentence is a joke."

Police have welcomed the decision to ban Thomas from using mobile phones and the internet.

Dyfed-Powys Police Detetective Sergeant Diane Davies : "It is part of our assessment on how someone commits an offence as to how we monitor them. We go to people's homes, we monitor their activities and who they are with.

"In this case, we felt that the offending was of such a serious nature and it was so extensive, we wanted to use all the legislation available to us safeguard the wellbeing of the public and to make sure that we used every opportunity for punishment for him.

"We are satisfied that we can monitor this restriction, otherwise there would have been no point in us applying for it in the first place."

However, John Carr, an internet consultant for the children's charity NCH, said he understood what the police were trying to do but doubted they would be able to police the order.

He told BBC Wales: "The simple truth is there are thousands of internet cafes on the high streets and back streets of every urban area in Britain.

"You can walk into one of them, give someone a quid in cash and set yourself up an internet account in less than three seconds.

"It requires absolutely no proof of you name, address, telephone number or anything, and the same applies with mobile phones - you just pay cash in a shop and walk out with one."

Thomas had denied two further charges of having unlawful sex with the girl and abducting her, which were left on the file when the prosecution offered no evidence against him.