Ettalong Beach paedophile convicted for breaching court orders
A convicted paedophile has blamed his “phone guy” after being caught with undisclosed social media accounts with sexual related photos and videos.
Central Coast
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A 65-year-old convicted paedophile has landed back in court, passing blame for his actions onto his “phone guy”.
The Ettalong Beach man, who cannot be named due to being on the Child Protection Register, appeared before Gosford Local Court on Thursday.
He pleaded guilty to two charges of fail to comply with reporting obligations under the Child Protection (Offenders Registration) Act 2000 between August 2021 and April 2022.
An agreed set of facts tendered to the court state that the man was convicted in Gosford District Court in 2008 on charges of aggravated sexual assault of a victim under 16 and sexual intercourse with a person over the age of 14 and under 16. He served time in prison for the offences.
The facts stated that the man has just two years left on the Child Protection Register.
People listed on the Register are required to supply details to police including address, phone number, email addresses, social media accounts, memberships as well as any contact with children.
If they set up a new email or social media account, they are required to advise police within seven days.
The man had his last annual report at Gosford Police Station in January and told police all his information was up to date and correct.
Police went to the man’s home on April 19 and during an inspection of his mobile phone, they found an email address that had not been disclosed.
Officers also found a Facebook account with the man’s name as his username. When police asked about it the man said “the phone guy from Woy Woy must have put it there”.
The facts stated that the man’s first Messenger use was in August 2021.
“All of the messages on the Messenger account were adult sex related,” the facts stated. “When asked about this the accused said he had been paying them money.”
Officer also located a Hangouts account and meet4sex account, which included messages with sexual-related photos and videos.
When asked about the accounts, the man said he was using them to contact “adult females”.
On Thursday, the man’s defence lawyer said it was an “inadvertent breach of the register”.
Magistrate Michael Antrum pointed out that the man had been compliant with the requirements of the Child Protection Register for a long time.
“You are coming to the end in a couple of years time,” he said. “It would be foolish to upset that progress.”
He said the Facebook account was in the man’s birth name and not for covert use.
Magistrate Antrum convicted the man on both charges, fining him $550 and sentencing him to a nine month community corrections order.
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