Dapto man Ryan Suttle to spend almost five years behind bars after he paid teenage girls for sex
A Dapto man who sexually abused several teen girls aged between 14 and 16 that he met on Snapchat will spend almost five years behind bars.
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A Dapto man who paid vulnerable teens he met on social media to have sex with him, will spend almost five years behind bars for his crimes.
Ryan Suttle, 26, faced Wollongong District Court via audiovisual link for sentencing on Thursday, after pleading guilty to 23 sex offences over three years including sexual intercourse with children aged 14 to 16, producing child abuse material and child prostitution.
The court heard Suttle met his victims on Snapchat, where he pretended to be a teenager himself, often sending them explicit photos of himself and asking the girls to do the same for him.
After chatting to the girls via the app, the court heard the 26-year-old would meet up with some of them, offering to pay his victims up to $50 to perform sex acts on him — with $10 extra if he filmed it.
In handing down his sentence, Judge Andrew Haesler said Suttle exploited the youth and naivety of his victims, with no regard for their mental health or wellbeing.
“He has been forced to learn a harsh lesson about how to respect others,” he said.
“Not only did he take advantage of [the girls] he lied to them about who he was for his own gratification.”
The court heard that at the time of his offending, Suttle was suffering from a gambling and sex addiction, fuelled by a back injury he sustained in 2015.
A psychological report prepared for the court revealed the 26-year-old had “signs of an adjustment disorder” after not being able to play soccer due to his injury.
Judge Haesler told the court the report detailed Suttle’s difficulty in regulating his emotions and behaviours, and “used sex as a coping mechanism”.
In other cases, the court heard Suttle picked up his victims in his car before driving them away to parks or showgrounds to commit the sexual abuse.
One of Suttle’s most vulnerable victims was a cannabis user when she accepted $60 to let him film her performing sexual acts with him in his car.
On another occasion a 14-year-old victim performed oral sex on Suttle while he filmed her inside his family home after a dinner.
Other descriptions of sexual abuse committed by Suttle are too graphic to be repeated.
While Suttle was initially charged in February 2018 and granted strict conditional bail, it didn’t stop him from communicating with some of his victims until he was jailed the following month.
After he was taken into custody, police found several child abuse videos on Suttle’s phone, created over the course of his offending.
His family were in court to support him on Thursday, while some of his victims sat on the opposite side of the court.
Suttle’s crimes were in breach of both state and commonwealth law, with Judge Andrew Haesler handing down a total sentence of seven years and 11 months, with a non-parole period of four years and 11 months.
Judge Haesler noted Suttle had shown remorse and regret for his actions, and said he showed strong signs of rehabilitation.
Given time already spent in custody, Suttle will be eligible for parole in March 2023.