Referee child sex criminal Dale Whiteman has Supreme Court appeal quashed

An Illawarra man who has been locked up for the last three years for his disgusting and manipulative crimes after he preyed on girls as young as 11 appealed his sentence.

Dale Whiteman’s appeal was dismissed in the Supreme Court earlier this month. Picture: Facebook.

The state’s highest court has dismissed a twisted junior rugby league referee’s appeal to have his sentence reduced for preying on 22 teenage girls over a 15-year period.

Illawarra man Dale Whiteman was sentenced in Wollongong District Court in October, 2021, to 16 years behind bars after pleading guilty to 16 charges including having sexual intercourse with a person aged 14 to 16, possessing child abuse material, aggravated indecent assault and using a carriage service to groom a child under 16 years for sex.

Whiteman, now 34, was handed a non-parole period of 12 years backdated to when he was first arrested and went into custody. This opens up the possibility he could be released on parole in 2031.

On sentencing, Judge Andrew Haesler characterised Whiteman’s offending as “persistent and predatory”, deriving from his “own sexual gratifications and deviant interests”.

“He had a demonstrated pattern where he would ingratiate himself with a group or family and take advantage of these girls,” Judge Haesler said.

Earlier this month, Whiteman appealed his sentence in the Supreme Court on the grounds Judge Haesler “erred in finding that the offending continued after the initial arrest of the applicant”, the verdict was “manifestly excessive”, and he “erred in failing to assess the objective criminality of counts”.

Documents tendered during the appeal hearing before Chief Justice Andrew Bell outlined the facts of Whiteman’s evil abuse of power where he would foster relationships with girls between the ages of 11 and 15 who he had met through friends and sporting activities.

He would approach the girls online, “steer the conversation in a sexual direction”, and request lewd pictures of his victims.

The documents stated on 11 occasions involving six victims, the online grooming led to in-person meetings where Whiteman committed sexual acts on the girls.

The paedophile’s abhorrent behaviour caught the attention of police when a friend of one of the victims reported what was occurring to their school principal.

In December 2019, police searched Whiteman’s home and seized a USB where inside a folder labelled “Work Pics”, they found child sexual abuse material depicting unknown children and some of the victims of the aforementioned offending.

Sex criminal Dale Whiteman appealed the severity of the sentence in the NSW Supreme Court earlier this month. Picture: Facebook

Further investigations led to Whiteman being arrested in March 2020.

Justice Bell said the Crown conceded there was an “error identified in ground one”, however, “there was nothing to suggest that there was any error in fact in his Honour’s findings” or “his Honour was not entitled to draw the conclusions he did having assessed the applicant give evidence”.

“I have concluded that his prospects of rehabilitation are quite poor given his prevarication and lack of honesty about his sexual interest in children,” Justice Bell said on resentencing.

“In my opinion, had the offending not been drawn to the attention of the authorities, the applicant would have continued accessing vulnerable children and offending in the manner demonstrated by his persistent repeated opportunistic and pernicious conduct over the 15 years preceding his arrest.

“The applicant expended substantial effort, thought and planning on how best to gain the trust of his victims. His offending did not abate and was, in fact, escalating.

Justice Bell referred to Whiteman’s offending as a 30-year-old in 2018 when he manipulated a 15-year-old into engaging in horrific sex acts by telling her he was “depressed”, “suicidal” and she could “make him feel better”.

“This is a chilling and concerning illustration of the actions of a manipulative and determined offender, starting with electronic access to and grooming of a vulnerable child, followed by further manipulation and emotional coercion into physical sexual offending against that child,” Justice Bell continued.

“This manipulation, in the context of him being 30 years old at the time and her being a 15 year old child, is sinister, callous and disgraceful.

“Whilst all the applicant’s offending against all of his twenty-two victims is serious, I consider this offending to be particularly serious and would have specified for those offences.

“I would also have structured the sentence to result in a longer non-parole period and longer head sentence for the State offending, resulting in the imposition of a longer overall aggregate sentence of imprisonment.”

Justice Bell concluded his remakes by saying he was “not satisfied a lesser sentence was warranted” and dismissed the appeal.