A 21-year-old man will have to wait to find out whether his appeal against a conviction of having underage sex with a 15-year-old girl will be successful.

Aaron Ashley O’Connor, 21, of The Glebe Road, Pembroke was jailed for 12 months for the offence of having unlawful carnal knowledge last month after pleading guilty to the charge.

But yesterday his lawyer, Craig Attridge, argued before the Court of Appeal that O’Connor should never have been charged with the offence of unlawful carnal knowledge, which does not have a statutory defence to it.

Mr Attridge said his client, who waived his right to be in court for the hearing having recently been freed from prison, should have been charged with sexual assault on the prosecution’s version of events.

Both unlawful carnal knowledge and sexual assault carry a maximum sentence of 20 years imprisonment.

Mr Attridge said that if O’Connor had been charged with sexual assault — a charge that has an absolute defence of consent — he could have avoided a conviction and been “exonerated”.

He told the panel of appeal judges that the decision of what the Department for Public Prosecutions charged was not an “unfettered discretion” and that the DPP were responsible for an abuse of process.

However prosecutors rejected Mr Attridge’s assertions and maintained that O’Connor was charged and pleaded guilty to the correct offence.

The panel of Court of Appeal judges said they would reserve judgment on O’Connor’s appeal until a later date when a written ruling will be released.

At his sentencing last month the court heard how O’Connor sent a barrage of sexual advances by WhatsApp to the schoolgirl.

Acting Justice Charlene Scott told him before sentencing: “If I was that age, I might feel pressured as well.

“She was a student; she was in school uniform. That would have been a lightbulb. That says ‘do not touch’. Suffice to say, that’s what makes it a serious offence: you being 20, she being under 16.

“She is not an adult; she is a young person.”