Tre Jordan Patullo pleads guilty to indecent treatment of Mackay teen

Details of the moment a father of three made a vile video call to an underage teen have been revealed. Read what he did.

Tre Jordan Patullo pleaded guilty to indecent treatment of a child under 16 over an obscene facetime via SnapChat.

A judge has asked “what the hell went through his head” after learning a Mackay father made an obscene video call to an underage teen while he was naked and masturbating on the toilet.

When police tracked down Tre Jordan Patullo over the vile facetime call, he was hiding in a cupboard at his girlfriend’s home.

Mackay District Court head that sometime between January and March 2022 the then 22 year old had asked the young teen, aged about 14 or 15, to facetime over Snapchat.

Crown prosecutor Jessica Guy said during the call Patullo turned the phone around revealing he was “naked, sitting on a toilet and masturbating”.

The girl had been with a friend who filmed the video call and disclosed the offending to police.

Patullo, 23, pleaded guilty to indecent treatment of a child under 16 (expose).

“That type of interaction with children must be deterred and denounced by the courts,” Ms Guy said.

Tre Jordan Patullo pleaded guilty to indecent treatment of a child under 16 over an obscene facetime via SnapChat.

“Balanced against the serious features I do accept that Mr Patullo wasn’t in the physical presence of the child when the act was taking place and didn’t involve actual touching of her.”

Ms Guy said it was open to find there were exceptional circumstances in this case meaning Patullo would not have to spend actual time behind bars.

Judge John Coker asked if there was “any explanation for what the hell went through his head” when he committed the offending.

“His only explanation for that was he was on speed at the time,” defence barrister Paul Rutledge said.

The court heard Patullo, a father of three who lived with his mother, had a “traumatic childhood” that included being a witnesses to extreme domestic violence and the victim of sexual abuse.

“He turned to drugs at a very early age,” Mr Rutledge, instructed by Barron and Allen Lawyers Mackay, said, adding his client began using marijuana at 12, speed at 14 and “quickly moved on to methylamphetamines”.

His father also died from cancer, which had a big impact on him.

The court heard he was on medication for bipolar and suffered from post traumatic stress disorder and anxiety, but was proactive working towards dealing with his issues and turning his life around.

The court heard Patullo had no priors for sexual offending.

“Clearly he’s demonstrated he’s not an ongoing threat,” Mr Rutledge said.

Judge Coker accepted Patullo had a difficult upbringing, suffered from serious mental health conditions and the explanation for his offending, albeit said it was no excuse.

“What looms perhaps largest of all here is the need to provide you with the opportunities for rehabilitation, the opportunity to change the direction of your life,” Judge Coker said.

Ultimately Judge Coker deemed it appropriate to find there were exceptional circumstances and released Patullo on a nine-month intensive corrections order. A conviction was recorded.