Butcher offered cash to have sex with friends’ little girls aged 11, 12

A Brisbane butcher sent sickening messages to two mothers offering to pay thousands of dollars to have sex with their young daughters aged just 11 and 12.

A Brisbane butcher offered mothers money to have sex with their young daughters.

A Brisbane butcher sent sickening messages to two mothers offering to pay thousands of dollars to have sex with their young daughters aged just 11 and 12.

Derek Ashley Dean Roberts, 33, separately contacted both women in August via text message, asking how old their children were and offering varying cash payments of up to $2000 to have sex with them.

The Brisbane District Court on Tuesday heard during the exchanges, Roberts sent photos of his erect penis to both women.

He pleaded guilty to using charges of the internet to procure a child under 16 and using the internet to procure a child under 12.

The court heard in August last year, Roberts messaged a 29-year-old woman he had met about her 11-year-old daughter.

“You asked how old she was and you offered money to have sex with her,” Judge Amanda McDonnell said.

“In the chain of communication, you sent the mother an image of your erect penis.”

In July, he messaged a 35-year-old female, asking how old her daughter was before messaging again in August.

“You sent various text messages asking how old the child was and offering $500 to $1200 to have sex with her, you sent two photographs of your erect penis,” Judge McDonnell said.

“Ultimately you offered her $2000 to have sex with her 12-year-old girl.”

Defence barrister Patrick Wilson told the court Roberts was in the grips of a severe drug addiction at the time.

“This offending rather than it being, in my submission, an issue of some underlying sexual interest in children … this is the type of chaos and disorder that flows from drug addiction,” Mr Wilson said.

He said the offending was in a unique category in that while it was “undoubtedly distressing” for the mothers, no harm was caused to the children because they were likely unaware of Roberts’ proposition.

“The reason why child sex offences are so serious is because of the long lasting harm caused by the commission of the offence, something which is absent here,” he said.

The court heard Roberts, who has served 172 days in custody, had now been abstinent from drugs for nine months and hoped to find accommodation and employment upon his release.

“He has instructed that he wants to express his deep remorse and extreme shame about what he did on these occasions through the haze of that drug addiction where it seems, one could take the view that he’s acted in a way that is foreign to him otherwise,” Mr Wilson said.

Judge McDonnell sentenced Roberts to the 172 days imprisonment which he has already served, and to a three-year probation order.

She acknowledged sentencing him to a jail term meant he would become a reportable offender.