A 62-year-old man stalked a group of 12-year-old girls over several days in Sydney’s eastern suburbs after meeting them inside a shopping centre and feeling a “connection”, a court has heard.
Four girls were eating at McDonald’s Westfield Bondi Junction on January 24 when Mark Coker, who was sitting near them, “engaged in some communication with them”, Magistrate Michael Barko said at Waverley Local Court on Tuesday.
One of the incidents occurred while the girls were swimming off Bondi Beach.Credit: Flavio Brancaleone
When they saw him later, they tried to steer clear of him.
The next day, three of the girls were at North Bondi when they saw Coker while walking on a pedestrian crossing.
“He sighted them, reminded them of their connection … laughed and drove away,” Barko said.
Two days later, the group was swimming at Bondi Beach while Coker sat on a nearby rock. They were concerned when he “began entering the water” and the four girls left the beach, the court heard.
On January 30, Coker was charged with four counts of stalking or intimidating with intent to cause fear of physical or mental harm and one count of stopping on or near a pedestrian crossing.
Coker first spoke to the girls at Westfield Bondi Junction a few days earlier, the court heard.Credit: Oscar Colman
Before sentencing Coker to a 12-month community correction order, Barko said there was no suggestion the initial meeting at McDonald’s was preplanned or that there was violence or threats.
“There seems to be some infatuation, perhaps, at the best end of the prosecution case, to stalk these girls,” Barko said.
The magistrate considered “some medical issues” Coker had experienced as a result of what his barrister Evan James described as suffering “horrific things as a young man”.
Barko said these issues had “no doubt” affected his “limited criminal history” related to drugs as well as his “personality”.
However, he also said the public would expect others to have “empathy for young people and understand how they do not want to have contact with mature adults who take advantage of their vulnerability and their position”.
“It was all in a number of days … certainly he identified them and they were able to identify him.”
Coker initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were set down for a hearing in June, but Barko said the court “appreciates” his decision to change these to guilty pleas and avoid four young girls “having to go to court and disturb their otherwise normal lives”.
Earlier in the proceedings, James said the circumstances were “a bit unusual” in regards to stalking.
He said psychologist records showed Coker had issues “building, mentalising and understanding his own and others’ emotions”.
“We would submit you should characterise this as a person who thought this was a connection and misunderstood it,” he told the court.
James said Coker’s guilty pleas reflected remorse and that his client accepted reaching out to the victims and sitting close by on the rock while “observing them” would have caused fear.
The court heard that Coker, originally from New Zealand, was a fly-in-fly-out worker without long-term accommodation in Sydney.
He was earlier granted bail on these offences, but faced court via audiovisual link from custody due to being refused bail on other matters.
James said that being in custody had been a “real wake-up call for the need for psychological counselling”.
The prosecutor did not argue for a harsher sentence than a community correction order with conditions.
Under the order, Coker must not commit any other offences, be supervised by community corrections and undergo mental health counselling or any other programs or treatment specified by his community correction officer.
For the pedestrian crossing offence, Coker was fined $220.
He will remain in custody on remand regarding his other ongoing charges.
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