Select a region
A teenager with an extensive history of possessing and creating indecent images of girls under the age of 16 has been sentenced to two-and-a-half years youth detention.
The now-18-year-old was sentenced yesterday for four counts of making 39 indecent photos of children, one count of possessing nine indecent images of children, and also one count of possessing cannabis.
He has previously been convicted of a number of similar offences. On those occasions he was given suspended sentences and probation orders.
Committing the latest offences meant the 18-year-old broke a three year probation order he was given at his last sentencing, which meant he was also sentenced yesterday for some of his previous offences. Those included possession, distribution and creation of indecent images of children, and also underage sexual intercourse.
The teenager is said to have pestered a number of local underage girls, asking for indecent images of them, and he also took images during live video calls with other underage girls.
He reportedly used threats of distributing the images, threats of self-harm, manipulation and coercion to convince the females to send him images.
"If this were your first offence, the sentence would be wholly geared toward help and rehabilitation; but we cannot ignore your very poor record, where you have not responded to any of our efforts to help you," Judge Russel Finch said during his sentencing remarks.
He added the risk of the teenager reoffending outweighed many of the mitigating remarks that had been made by his defence lawyer.
In total, the defendant was sentenced to two years and six months youth detention, which was back dated to have started from his arrest on 25 July 2017. That was coupled with an extended sentence of seven years, and a notification period of 10 years.
The man had images stored on a family computer, a hard disk and a USB stick. When arrested previously, indecent images were found which had already been confiscated in the past.
Comments
Comments on this story express the views of the commentator only, not Bailiwick Publishing. We are unable to guarantee the accuracy of any of those comments.