Corey James Bartholomew pleads guilty in Toowoomba District Court to child sex offences

A Toowoomba man told a 15-year-old girl ‘I’m a pedo now’ before grooming her for a year. Here’s how he was caught.

A 22-year-old Toowoomba man who groomed an underage girl online for almost a year will spend at least the next eight months behind bars.

Corey James Bartholomew had met the 15-year-old girl through the online platform Discord in December 2019 and from January 27, 2020, to January 2, 2021, had exchanged sexualised and romantic chats with her almost weekly.

Toowoomba District Court was told when the girl told him that she was just 15, Bartholomew had told her “Nice, a young ’un” and followed up with “I’m a pedo now”.

Through the weekly chats online Bartholomew, then aged 19 and 20, had the girl send him photographs of her breasts as well as take part in sexual acts online, Commonwealth Department of Public Prosecutions federal prosecutor Daniel Trigger told the court.

Corey James Bartholomew was sentenced in Toowoomba District Court on June 1, 2023, for using carriage service to groom a child under 16.

Bartholomew had also sent her a pornographic video of an adult woman engaged in a sexual act, he said.

His offending was brought to a halt when officers from Task Force Argos detected the online activity and conducted a search of his Toowoomba home where his electronic devices were seized and found to contain 69 images of child exploitation material including images of naked pre-pubescent girls, Mr Trigger said.

Bartholomew, who had no previous criminal history at all, pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to groom a child under 16, using a carriage service to solicit a child under 16 and transmitting and possessing child exploitation material.

His barrister Wes Seewald told the court at the time of the offending his client claimed he was “lonely and withdrawn” and sought companionship.

However, Bartholomew realised he should not have been doing what he was doing and was remorseful, he said.

Bartholomew was expecting his first child with his partner in November and he would miss the birth should he be in custody, Mr Seewald said.

Judge Suzanne Sheridan

Judge Suzanne Sheridan said the offending was “very serious”.

“The advent of the internet has seen a prevalence and ready availability of child abuse material and ready access to acts which enable real communication with children,” she said.

“It results in conduct that inappropriately sexualises children when they are at an age ill equipped to protect themselves.”

Judge Sheridan sentenced Bartholomew to 25 months in jail but ordered he be released after eight months upon entering into a recognisance of $1000 to be of good behaviour for three years and be subjected to two years probation.

Originally published as Corey James Bartholomew pleads guilty in Toowoomba District Court to child sex offences