Port Pirie Headspace counsellor Dwayne Gwydion Murphy jailed for grooming homeless teenager

A Headspace counsellor has been jailed for grooming a teenager at a previous job, who he knew was from a troubled background.

A Headspace counsellor who groomed a young girl he met while working as a receptionist for the organisation has been jailed for ten months.

Dwayne Gwydion Murphy, 34, was arrested at the Headspace offices in Port Pirie after his offending came to light.

Last week Judge Paul Slattery said Murphy met the 14-year-old girl while working in a different state.

He was aware she was homeless and had a troubled background.

Murphy later moved to Port Pirie but stayed in touch with the teenager over the online chat application Discord.

In the early hours of November 27, 2020, the victim sent a photo to a Discord chat group of herself.

She had been drinking and was living in a homeless shelter at the time.

Murphy messaged her saying she looked “hot”.

Between 1am and 4am the pair exchanged increasingly sexualised messages which included him saying that he “enjoyed the daddy little girl thing a little”.

“You told the victim you would have sex with her when she turned 18 years of age and that it ‘it might be wise to delete this conversation. If anyone gets hold of this we could get in trouble. That doesn’t delete anything we’ve talked about of course’,” Judge Slattery said.

Later that day the conversation continued and the victim asked Murphy whether he had meant the things he had said.

Social media photo of Dwayne Gwydion Murphy who was jailed for grooming a teenager online.

“For legal reasons it’s a joke, but yes,” he replied.

Murphy begun once again sending sexualised messages to the young girl.

The offending came to light when the victim told a friend and then a school-based police officer.

“You were not her assigned counsellor at Headspace but she continued to open up to you as she did not have any family and she felt that you cared about her,” Judge Slattery said.

“She enjoyed the attention she received from you and considered you to be a friend whom she could trust.”

Murphy was arrested on February 4, 2021 while he was at work at the Headspace office in Port Pirie and his phone was seized.

Murphy told police he thought the victim was 16 and that he had been drunk when the conversation begun.

He said the conversation “had gotten out of hand”.

Letters of reference tendered to the court described Murphy “glowingly as a good man who made a terrible mistake”.

However, Judge Slattery said the offending was incredibly serious.

“Not only did you prey upon a child but one whom you knew was also extremely vulnerable, being homeless and suicidal,” he said.

Murphy was sentenced to ten months and 24 days in prison.