Toowoomba teacher jailed for sexting online with 14-year-old girl in Scotland

The jury found the girl had told the teacher she was just 14 at the time and rejected his claim that she said she was 16.

The man had exchanged sexually explicit images of himself with the girl.

A 28-YEAR-OLD married man has been found guilty to exchanging explicit sexual images over the internet with a 14-year-old girl.

Jarred Lee Wands was 23, married and teaching Year 6 at a Toowoomba primary school when he engaged in the porn chatting with the teenager in May and June 2016.

He had found the girl who was living in Scotland via the chat room Omegle and the pair had struck up an internet relationship, Toowoomba District Court heard.

Wands claimed the girl had told him she was 16 during their initial conversation and pleaded not guilty to 35 charges including possessing child exploitation material and using the internet to procure a child for a sexual act.

It was the Crown case the girl had told Wands she was only 14 during that first chat.

Over the time they conversed, Wands had sent 21 photographs of his exposed penis to the teenager and, on his request and encouragement, she had sent him nine photos of her vagina and breasts, the court heard.

He had also instructed her how to pleasure herself and, at his urging, the pair had masturbated during a video link together, Crown prosecutor Shontelle Petrie told the court.

Wands had told the girl he was 20 years of age and a university student and also worked in a bar.

Taking the witness stand, he maintained to the court that the girl had told him she was 16 and she had sent a photograph of her in her school uniform which was shown to the court.

However, by its verdicts, the jury had found that Wands knew the girl was just 14 at the time.

The girl’s mother and Scotland police had given evidence via video from Scotland.

Through her victim impact statement, the girl had told of suffering anxiety since the events and that it had negatively effected her life.

Defence barrister Isaac Munsie said his client had been suspended as a teacher when the charges became known and was now self-employed with a computer business.

Mr Munsie said his client was undergoing counselling and had attended 46 sessions.

Judge Deborah Richards said it was “clear by the messaging that she wasn’t a sexually experienced child”.

She sentenced Wands to two and a half years in jail, the term to be suspended after he has served 12 months with the balance to hang over his head for three years in which time he was not to commit another offence or risk serving that time.

Originally published as Toowoomba teacher jailed for sexting online with 14-year-old girl in Scotland