Baulkham Hills’ Franzric Lara jailed for online child exploitation offences

A former uni student and social outcast who sent sexually explicit messages to underage girls and urged them to get naked has learned his fate for the crude offences.

A man who threatened underage girls if they failed to send nude pictures of themselves online has been jailed for his child exploitation offences almost two years after the Australian Federal Police busted him at his Baulkham Hills home.

Former McDonald’s employee Franzric Lara was arrested on June 3, 2020, after the AFP received a tip-off from their New Zealand counterparts warning that the 24 year old posed as a girl named Abby.

Between March 2019 and May 2020, Lara would ask those online their ages and targeted 32 victims he believed were “young, small children”.

They included a “real’’ girl aged nine and others involving unknown entities and undercover New Zealand cops posing as children on Instagram.

Lara encouraged one victim to masturbate and said she “may not survive’’ if she failed to touch herself. He coerced her to practise taking nude photos starting with capturing her undies “and working her way up’’’ and shooting video removing her clothes.

He urged her to film her vagina and “she needed to do nudes and everything”.

Lara warned a victim she would catch an vaginal infection “if she did not start playing with her body’’ and threatened illness and rape by unknown third parties if they did not comply with his requests.

No images or footage was sent to him. NSW Police warned him to stop offending twice before his AFP arrest.

At Parramatta District Court on Wednesday, Judge Chris Craigie said the conversations were “highly gross’’ and dismissed Lara’s suggestions that he was trying to make connections with people.

Instead he lured them into abusive situations online using “brutal persuasion”.

“The offender certainly knew the ages of those with whom he believed he was interacting,’’ Justice Craigie said.

Franzric Lara after a 2020 court appearance. Picture: Monique Harmer

Franzric Lara pleaded guilty to multiple offences after posing as a girl named Abby. Picture: Facebook

“The focus was clearly ... limited to a sexual tone, no other subject was discussed.’’

Lara pleaded guilty to 15 counts of using a carriage service to transmit indecent communications to a person under the age of 16 and two counts of using a carriage service to solicit child abuse material online.

At court, Lara wore a grey hoodie and was supported by his parents.

The court heard how Lara, who was not required to give evidence, was self-loathing and that he “felt guilty and ashamed that he put his family through this”.

The court heard how he told psychologist Lisa Ziparro how he engaged in the lewd messages after being rejected by his peers and being the subject of jokes about his weight during high school.

“A lot was going on in the background,’’ he said.

“It was a way to distract myself from reality. It felt good not to be rejected. It was a safe place for me not to be rejected.’’

Justice Craigie said: “That response is remarkable and ironic given children did not find a safe place communicating with the offender.’’

The court heard Lara worked at McDonald’s from when he was 15 to the time of his arrest and undertook an animation course at university but dropped out in 2020 when it became too difficult.

Despite having autism and encountering family pressure to land a good job, Justice Craigie found his offending motives were intelligent and sophisticated.

Lara was convicted and sentenced to three years and nine months behind bars. He will be eligible for parole on March 5, 2024.

Justice Craigie noted Lara would full time custody extra hard because of his autism but had good prospects of rehabilitation.

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