A court ordered psychiatric assessment has been ordered after the County Court Judge said he was troubled by an existing report in which the offender maintains he wasn’t sexually attracted to his victim.
The court heard the man also denied using a false name during the period of offending and said he couldn’t understand why he had sent thousands of messages.
The man, who was aged between 36 and 38 at the time, started messaging the teenager in June 2017 when she was 13.
The 40-year-old man pleaded guilty to two counts of grooming a child under 16 years for sex.
His lawyer told the plea hearing that his conduct did not go further than messaging and the exchange of one image.
“It is not for want of trying that there is no contact between your client and the complainant, these are very graphic,” the Judge responded.
“These are designed to bring about an explicit outcome, whether it happened or not.
“That’s the nature of grooming, not every message is explicit.”
The man was remanded in custody and won’t return to court for at least six weeks while the new psychiatric report is done.
“There are aspects still that very much trouble me,” the Judge said.
The defence had pursued a combination sentence including a community corrections order saying “There is work that needs to be done, there is treatment that needs to occur” but the Judge declined to order an assessment.
The man will be sentenced at a date to be determined once the psychiatric report is completed.
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