A teenager who met a man four times his age in Asda car park for sex said the Grindr pervert had ruined his life.

The boy’s father shouted “scumbag” across the courtroom at Mark Wagstaff as he was jailed at Swindon Crown Court yesterday.

Sending the 52-year-old down for four years and six months, Judge Peter Crabtree said: “As a 13-year-old boy and with severe ADHD, it cannot be said that the victim was to blame in any way for what occurred. Indeed, the legislation is there to protect people like him.”

Prosecutor Chris Smyth had earlier told the court Wagstaff had met his victim, then just 13, on gay dating app Grindr in 2017.

The child, who had come out to his parents a year earlier, claimed to be 18. He swapped sexually explicit messages with a number of older men, including Wagstaff.

Their conversation moved from the app to WhatsApp, where the boy’s number was saved in the man’s phone under the name “sexy”.

The pair met in November 2017 in the Orbital shopping centre Asda car park. The Highworth man picked the boy up in his car then drove to a secluded spot in the car park, undid his flies and asked the boy “are you going to start, then?” The youngster performed oral sex on him.

Wagstaff had previously believed the boy was an adult but, upon seeing him, asked how old he was. The youngster claimed he had a genetic condition that made him look younger than he was.

By the time they met again a couple of weeks later Wagstaff was aware the boy was underage. He picked him up at the same Asda car park and drove to his flat in Highworth. They stripped in the bedroom and the boy performed a sex act on the older man. The encounter lasted around 15 minutes.

Messages between the pair continued into the new year. The contact came to an end when the boy’s mother spotted incriminating messages on her son’s phone and called the police.

Mr Smyth said Wagstaff knew the teen was underage. “The victim told the defendant explicitly he was 13-years-old and at school. The defendant responded that this was alright but urged him not to tell anyone.”

In a victim statement the boy said: “This has ruined my life more than I could ever have imagined.” His mother told the court in her statement it had created a strain on the family. The boy’s parents split at the end of last year.

Wagstaff, of Church View, Highworth, admitted sexual activity with a child and inciting a child to engage in sexual activity.

Defending, Matthew Harbinson said his client had suffered a brain injury as a young man after falling from a bridge. He had a number of medical complaints as a result, including memory loss. He had not worked and suffered from poor mental health.

He was isolated and had used the Grindr app in order to meet people, Mr Harbinson suggested.

His client was remorseful. “The prospect for him today of the custodial sentence is something he has had hanging over him for a very long period of time. He has reflected on his decision-making and his involvement in this particular incident on a daily basis since this took place. He has lived with it each and every waking hour since it took place, knowing this day would arrive and a form of reckoning would come.”

Wagstaff was made subject to a life-long sexual harm prevention order intended to limit his contact with underage boys. He must sign onto the sex offender register for life.