Private John Ronald Nicholson dismissed from Australian Defence Force for sending photos of his penis to female colleagues
Soldier Private John Ronald Nicholson was charged with two acts of indecency after he sent photos of his member via Facebook messenger and Snapchat to two separate victims
Police & Courts
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A soldier has been booted out of the Australian Defence Force after he pleaded guilty to sending pictures of his penis via social media to two separate female colleagues.
Private John Ronald Nicholson was charged with two acts of indecency after he sent photos of his member via Facebook messenger and Snapchat last year.
Nicholson sent the first of his victims a message containing an image of a penis in March 2020, the Defence Force Magistrate court heard.
He was asked by the woman why he had done this and replied that he didn’t think the complainant was with her boyfriend anymore and then apologised.
In the same month Nicholson sent another colleague a picture of a penis and encouraged her to look at the message.
Around a month later the victim confronted him and asked whether he had sent her a photo of his penis. He simply responded in a message, “Yes, I did”, the court heard.
Defence Force Magistrate Group Captain Scott Geeves said he gave significant weight to the victim impact statement provided by the second victim.
“Unsurprisingly, the unsolicited provision of sexualised and inappropriate imagery had an effect on the complainant,” he said.
“The defendant, although inexperienced in terms of rank and time served, was a mature man.”
Nicholson was apologetic and had entered a plea of guilty at the earliest opportunity and offered some degree of co-operation to service investigators during the interview process.
However, the court found the offending was deliberate over a short period of time and persistent in that it involved two separate complainants.
Sending unsolicited penis pictures to two female members of the Army showed a clear lack of integrity and disrespect of service values with the only reasonable punishment being immediate dismissal from the Australian Defence Force, the court heard.
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