Grandmother awaits ACT Supreme Court sentencing over TikTok child abuse offences
A grandmother may escape convictions for filming an indecent video of a toddler and putting it on TikTok, a court has heard.
Canberra Star
Don't miss out on the headlines from Canberra Star. Followed categories will be added to My News.
A grandmother may escape convictions for filming an indecent video of a toddler and putting it on TikTok, a court has heard, with the woman’s lawyer describing the offences as “trivial”.
The woman did not appear in the ACT Supreme Court on Monday, when Justice Belinda Baker heard further sentencing submissions from lawyers involved in the case.
The judge had earlier emailed the lawyers, asking them to address her on whether it would be appropriate to make non-conviction orders.
Defence lawyer Georgia Le Couteur said there was “nothing that precludes” that outcome.
Ms Le Couteur argued it was open to the court to find the offences were “of a trivial nature” when compared to others of their kind.
She said if Justice Baker was not satisfied the offences were “trivial”, they were at least of low objective seriousness.
The grandmother previously pleaded guilty to committing an aggravated act of indecency on a person under 10, and using a carriage service to publish child abuse material.
The offences involved the Canberra-based woman using her phone to record a video in which she exposed her granddaughter’s genitals in January 2023.
She moved the phone closer to her granddaughter during the video, effectively zooming in on the toddler’s private parts.
Agreed facts revealed she then saved the video in her TikTok app, which had the effect of publishing the clip to the social media company’s servers.
The woman subsequently sent her daughter, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, a link to the TikTok video using Facebook Messenger.
TikTok staff identified the video as child abuse material and reported it to the US National Centre for Missing and Exploited Children, which then notified the Australian Federal Police.
The woman was arrested in February 2023, when she spent a night in police custody before being granted bail.
Ms Le Couteur said on Monday the experience of being behind bars would have been “quite jarring” for the grandmother, an immigrant who did not speak English.
She noted convictions may have an impact on the grandmother’s ability to remain in Australia, with the woman’s visa possibly in jeopardy.
The court previously heard the offender had been performing a “cultural massage” on the toddler immediately before she filmed the video.
Earlier this month, Ms Le Couteur said that explained why the toddler was naked prior to the offending, which seemed to have stemmed from “a cultural misunderstanding”.
On Monday, the defence lawyer told Justice Baker there was “little to rehabilitate here”.
“This is criminal offending, in my submission, that arises more out of mistake than anything else,” she said.
Prosecutor David Swan argued the offences were “certainly not towards the lowest end” of objective seriousness.
However, he said he was of the view non-conviction orders were “within range” in relation to both charges.
Justice Baker is set to hand down her sentence next week.
The grandmother, who cannot be identified for legal reasons, remains on bail in the interim.
Watch: Wild 280km cop chase from Sydney to Canberra
A man has been arrested and will be extradited to NSW after a 280km cross border chase from Sydney’s CBD to Canberra in what police allege was a stolen car. See the footage here.
Read more
Clocked out of work and vanished: 17yo girl’s cold case haunts family
It has been 41 years to the day since 17-year-old Megan Mulquiney seemingly vanished into thin air – an unresolved case that continues to haunt her family, who are still searching for answers.
Read more