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‘Predatory’ abattoir worker Aaron Medley jailed for threatening South Australian woman for nudes

A former slaughterhouse worker told a woman on Snapchat he would share her intimate images “worldwide” if she did not keep providing them.

Aaron Medley outside Ballarat Magistrates' Court on March 13, 2025 after pleading guilty to exploiting a South Australian woman on Snapchat.
Aaron Medley outside Ballarat Magistrates' Court on March 13, 2025 after pleading guilty to exploiting a South Australian woman on Snapchat.

A Victorian former slaughterhouse worker exploited a young South Australian woman who sent him intimate images, telling her he would “share everything worldwide” if she did not continue to give him explicit photos.

Former slaughterhouse worker Aaron Medley, in his 20s, faced Ballarat Magistrates’ Court on Thursday for breaching his sexual offences and child abuse reporting obligations and threatening a woman for naked photos.

The court heard Medley made two Snapchat accounts in late 2022 and 2023 without informing police.

In May 2024, he sent a friend request on one of the accounts to a 21-year-old South Australian woman.

The pair began talking, and Medley repeatedly asked for intimate images.

The woman obliged and sent him two short videos, which Medley saved, telling the woman he “only wanted them for himself”.

Aaron Medley outside Ballarat Magistrates' Court on March 13, 2025 after pleading guilty to exploiting a South Australian woman on Snapchat.
Aaron Medley outside Ballarat Magistrates' Court on March 13, 2025 after pleading guilty to exploiting a South Australian woman on Snapchat.

At one point, the woman refused to provide more material, and Medley threatened to distribute the material she had previously sent him.

“It’s simple,” he said.

“Do it now or I share everything worldwide.”

When Medley was arrested and interviewed, he denied running the Snapchat account or talking to the victim.

Magistrate Mike Wardell called Medley’s behaviour in the past and with regard to Thursday’s court matter “predatory”.

“You had selected vulnerable persons and exploited those vulnerabilities,” he said.

The court heard Wardell had an intellectual impairment and was “slow to learn”, but was developing insight.

His risk of reoffending “should” be reduced, the court heard, if he had the proper support.

But Mr Wardell said Medley appeared to know the severity of his offending.

“He’s saying, ‘You provide me with more, otherwise I share this with the world.’

“ … Isn’t that very threat saying to her, ‘I know how bad it would be for you if I shared this with the world’?

“He knows the power of that threat.”

Medley was sentenced to three months’ imprisonment.

Original URL: https://www.heraldsun.com.au/leader/ballarat/predatory-abattoir-worker-aaron-medley-jailed-for-threatening-south-australian-woman-for-nudes/news-story/f452a23233980c933c68bb14dae41b61