Umina Beach: Kane Houlden, 24, sentenced for grooming teen boys for sex
A man who offered his 15-year-old “partner in crime” $20 to help him groom and “catfish” other boys for sex has been sentenced.
Central Coast
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A man tried to get a 15-year-old boy he befriended online to help “lure these boys in as our own” so he could watch and participate with them in sex, a court has heard.
Kane Houlden, 24, of Umina Beach, faced Gosford District Court on Friday after pleading guilty to three offences including using a carriage service to procure a child for sex, grooming a person to make it easier to have sex with them and possessing child abuse material.
The court heard Houlden was arrested on November 25 last year by Australian Federal Police (AFP) Child Protection investigators who received a report from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC).
The report identified an Omegle user who was using the online chat platform to advertise their search for underage children for sexual activity.
AFP officers linked the IP addresses and mobile phone number associated with the advertisement to the then 23-year-old Houlden.
Eastern Command Child Protection investigators received additional information from their counterparts in the NSW Police Force about the same man engaging with teenagers to procure them for sexual activity.
Police seized a mobile phone, laptop and several SIM cards during the search at Houlden’s home, which uncovered a 39-second video of a pre-pubescent boy performing a sexual act on a man.
The court heard Houlden befriended a 15-year-old boy in Sydney who he called his “partner in crime” and offered to pay him $20 if he could “find a boy” they could have sex with.
The court further heard Houlden wanted to watch while the teenager have sex with another boy in a public toilet cubicle before joining in.
“I really need a boy like ASAP. I’m thirsty AF,” Houlden wrote in one of his messages.
“I just need young boy dick.”
The court heard after his arrest Houlden provided AFP officers with the passwords to his phones and laptop and agreed to be interviewed.
He told officers he knew procuring a child for sex was illegal and he “knew it was not right to touch a child”.
The court heard Houlden had struggled to make friends as a child and was once caught offering to pay classmates for oral sex.
Giving evidence at his sentence hearing Houlden said he opted to meet children online because it was easier than meeting men his own age on Tinder or Grindr and while jail was not a nice place he had made some “amazing” friendships “I would struggle to make on the outside”.
He was sentenced to five years jail with a non-parole period of two years.
With time served since his arrest Houlden will be eligible for release on November 24 next year.
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