Andrew James Sargent, Wadalba, to be sentenced for sending sexually explicit material to police posing as teen girl

A Central Coast man continued having sexually explicit conversations with what he thought was a 14-year-old girl. Hear how police posed as a teenager and what led to his arrest.

A Central Coast man who sent sexually explicit images to police posing as a 14-year-old girl told her “I shouldn't be but am turned on that you are so much younger than me”.

Andrew James Sargent, of Wadalba, will be sentenced over one charge of attempt to use carriage service to engage in sexual activity with child with a charge of use carriage service to send indecent material to person under 16 to be considered on sentence.

He pleaded guilty to the offences between May and July 2020.

Sargent, 43, appeared before Gosford District Court on Friday where his sentence submissions continued before Judge Tanya Bright.

During previous submissions, the court heard Sargent tried to justify his offending saying “it did not seem real as it was online”.

Andrew Sargent will be sentenced after engaging police who were posing as a 14-year-old girl in explicit conversations. Picture: Facebook

An agreed set of facts tendered to the court stated that in May, 2020 officers attached to the Child Exploitation Internet Unit were performing covert online duties.

They had an Assumed Online Identity (AOI) of a 14-year-old female and were on the ChatIW site when Sargent made contact.

“You are a little young to be on here … you are 14 correct?”

When the AOI confirmed the age, Sargent continued to message saying “have any guys sent you pics of their d**ks”.

“Oh well be careful … cause I almost sent you mine … just kidding.”

The facts stated he sent the AOI two images of his penis and asked questions regarding the AOI’s sexual experiences.

The AOI then asked Sargent if he had a Skype account and he added what he thought was the 14-year-old girl to his profile named Rufus Sellers.

The court heard Sargent didn’t think it was real as it was online. Picture: Facebook

Sargent messaged the AOI over a four day period in late May and in June sent a message “I shouldn't be but am turned on that you are so much younger than me”.

During a conversation, he turned on the Skype webcam and masturbated for over a minute, however the footage also revealed his face.

“To be 100 per cent honest of course I’d love us to see my penis in real life,” he messaged the AOI.

Sargent contacted the AOI on other dates in June/July and the last messages were on July 13 when he said “I like being naked … if you want to touch it then say”.

Sargent was arrested and during his interview with police admitted to being the author of the chats and sending images of his penis. He also said it was “possible” he was sexually aroused.

The facts stated that Sargent said the purpose of his chats was to gratify himself.

During sentence submissions in the Gosford District Court, the Crown Prosecutor said a term of imprisonment is the only option.

Sargent continued messaging what he thought was a girl aged 14.

Judge Bright replied, “I don’t think there’s an issue about that”.

The prosecutor called for a sentence with a minimum of five years and maximum of 20 years due to Sargent’s “sexual interest in children” and “lack of insight into the offending particularly because of the comment that it was online and didn’t seem real”.

The court heard Sargent was also masturbating while talking to what he believed was a 14-year-old girl.

The prosecutor said there was a need for “specific deterrence” for these types of offences.

“There was more than one occasion of communication,” she said. “It’s clear he requires treatment for insight into offending and to deal with his sexual interest.”

Sargent’s defence lawyer told the court the number and duration of contacts between Sargent and the “victim” could be described as “average”.

Sargent will be sentenced in Gosford District Court. Picture: David Swift

He said a matter of significance to the court was that there was only one “single believed victim”.

“There was a single person rather than the offender communicating with multiple people,” he said. “There was no concrete attempt to arrange any meeting.”

He said there was nothing about Sargent’s circumstances, including no prior criminal history, that showed he did “this kind of thing habitually”, also indicating there was no child abuse material found on him at the time of his arrest.

He asked Judge Bright to discount Sargent’s sentence by 25 per cent for the early plea of guilty and as additional five per cent due to Sargent co-operating with police.

Sargent will be sentenced in the Gosford District Court on August 24.