A MAN jailed for having sexual intercourse with a 15-year-old girl he met on Facebook has been handed a suspended sentence after lodging an appeal in a higher court.
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The now 23-year-old, who cannot be named for legal reasons, drove from Glen Innes to Armidale to smoke cannabis and have sex with the teen girl, who was home alone at the time in November, 2016.
Armidale Local Court heard they became friends on Facebook in September, before the first face-to-face encounter in November.
Magistrate Michael Holmes said the "initial approach [was] via the internet, and the community has a great deal of concern”.
Flanked by family members seated in the court room, the court heard he was 22 and the girl was 15-years-old at the time.
"That was a significant age gap," Mr Holmes said.
There is a position of dominance ... because of the age … and the straight out issue of criminality because she's under 16.
- Magistrate Michael Holmes
"There is a position of dominance ... because of the age … and the straight out issue of criminality because she's under 16.”
The court heard the pair would talk via messenger before he “requested the victim to send him naughty pictures”.
They had sexual intercourse on two occasions before police were notified when the victim’s sister found “sexually-explicit images” of the victim.
The victim declined to be interviewed by police but allowed investigators access to the messages and in December, the man, who worked in Guyra at the time, was arrested and interviewed by police.
He admitted they had smoked cannabis before having sexual intercourse and told her "no one can find out because we'll get in trouble".
The victim sent him “multiple naked selfies”.
We have now entered a new age of use of the internet to initiate sex crimes. It is a new form a child sex abuse, there is no doubt about it.
- Magistrate Michael Holmes
“We have now entered a new age of use of the internet to initiate sex crimes,” Mr Holmes said.
“It is a new form a child sex abuse, there is no doubt about it.”
He said the offending was aggravated because “the offence was committed in the home of the victim”, “the use of cannabis” and it was “part of a planned and organised activity”.
“The relationship was fostered for his own sexual gratification,” Mr Holmes said.
“The community is very concerned of the use of the internet for predatory behaviour.”
The man pleaded guilty to possessing child abuse material and two counts of having sexual intercourse with a person under 16.
Solicitor Glen Kee said the “single and startlingly fact” was that without his client’s own admissions “he would not be before the court”.
The court heard the 22-year-old was abused as a child, was suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder but had shown “contrition and remorse” by his admissions to police in an interview and his guilty pleas in court.
Mr Holmes dismissed an application to have the charges dealt with under the Mental Health Act and said although the offender had been “honest” and “upfront”, the case was “too compelling, it's a matter that has to be dealt with according to law".
“What the community is concerned about is online predators, and that's what he was in this," he told the court.
DPP solicitor Stephen Ryan said the accused was employed full-time and was in an “age-appropriate relationship at the time”.
This is a planned, series of acts that takes place over a series of times.
- DPP solicitor Stephen Ryan
“This is a planned, series of acts that takes place over a series of times,” he said.
Mr Holmes jailed the main for 18 months with a non-parole period of nine months.
But he spent barely anytime in custody after Mr Kee lodged an immediate appeal in the district court in Armidale which was heard on Monday.
After hearing submissions on the case, Judge Jennifer English re-sentenced the man, handing him three Section 12 suspended jail sentences – two for a maximum of 12 months.