Turramurra man Cormac Clarence Levy pretended to be teen to groom underage girl online, court told
A 23-year-old north shore man, who allegedly pretended to be a teenager online in an attempt to groom an underage girl so she would meet up with him, has appeared in a Sydney court after his arrest by federal police.
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A north shore man pretended to be a teenager online as part of an alleged attempt to meet up with a girl aged under 16.
Cormac Clarence Levy, 23, also sent the girl indecent material while he engaged in a sexualised conversation on an instant messaging app, Australian Federal Police have alleged.
Levy, of Turramurra, appeared in Hornsby Local Court on Thursday facing a string of charges for allegedly trying to groom the girl online.
AFP officers raided his family home early on Thursday and seized a mobile phone and laptop, which are now undergoing forensic examination.
Levy’s arrest came after the AFP-led Australian Centre to Counter Child Exploitation (ACCCE) received a report from one of the girl’s parents.
The parent alleged that the girl was contacted on the messaging platform by an online user who claimed to be 17 years old.
Levy has been charged with two counts of using a carriage service to transmit indecent material to a person under the age of 16.
He was also charged with one count of possess etc child abuse data — use carriage service.
If convicted, Levy faces up to 15 years in jail.
The court will hear allegations that an online user befriended the girl and then asked for their conversations to move to a different platform.
Police alleged that the user then engaged in sexualised conversation and suggested they meet in person.
the AFP, with the help of the ACCCE, allegedly linked Levy to the username behind the illegal activity.
During his bail application hearing in court on Thursday afternoon, Levy sat in the dock clutching a sick bag.
He was shaking and needed the support of a single crutch as he left the dock after being granted strict conditional bail by magistrate Michael O’Brien.
Levy must report to Hornsby police station once each day between Monday and Friday.
Other conditions include not approaching within 100m of a school, preschool or child care facility; not to be unaccompanied in the presence of any person aged 16 years or under; must not contact anyone 16 years or under via landline telephone, mobile telephone, email, social networking site or other available internet messaging service; not to have the internet connected to any premises where he lives and; not own or possess a mobile telephone that can access the internet.
The matter was adjourned to the Sydney Downing Centre Local Court on August 7.
In a media statement released on Thursday, Detective Acting Inspector Emmanuel Tsardoulias said the AFP was relentless in its pursuit of alleged offenders seeking to harm children online.
Acting Insp Tsardoulias also stressed the importance of parents and guardians to be aware of their children’s online activity.
“Parents, caregivers and the community are the first line of defence when it comes to protecting our children,” he said.
“Supervision is not only critical to helping prevent an incident happening, but can also help adults to quickly take action if they need to alert law enforcement.
“We encourage parents and carers to have open and non-judgemental conversations with their children about their online activity.”
Advice and support for parents can be found at the ThinkUKnow website.
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