Jake Wayne Price faces Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court for failing to comply with reporting obligations
A registered Latrobe Valley sex offender has been busted with multiple social media accounts and a new tattoo that he failed to tell police about.
Bass Coast News
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A registered sex offender and father of four still had active social media accounts that he failed to notify police about, claiming he forgot about them as they had not been used in five years.
Jake Wayne Price, 34, appeared at the Latrobe Valley Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday and pleaded guilty to three counts of failing to comply with reporting obligations.
The court heard Price, who has been on the sex offenders registry for 15 years, was found guilty of other offences in the Mildura Supreme Court on May 6 last year and was then given reporting obligations.
On May 15, Price went to the Warragul police station and handed officers his mobile phone when they discovered he had an Instagram account under “jake.price7126” and snapchat accounts that were still active.
The accounts had not been previously reported by Price, and the court also heard he had an “unreported” tattoo on his neck that was then photographed by authorities.
Price’s defence lawyer Brodie Logue said his client forgot about the social media accounts as he hadn’t used them since 2020, and the tattoo on his neck was to remember his brother who died in a crash.
Mr Logue said Price was a person of character, a family man and worked as a boilermaker.
He added the offending happened when Price was 19 and there had been no further offending against children since.
However, Magistrate Stephen Lee thought Price would be more “switched on”.
“That’s why failing to report is a bit hard to understand,” Mr Lee said.
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He told Price he had not come to the court with a “clean slate”.
“SORA (Sex Offenders Registration Act) is about community protection,” Mr Lee said.
Price, who only has two years left on the registry, admitted it was “stupid”.
He told the court some digits in the social media usernames had changed and that he should have said something.
Mr Lee fined Price $1000 and a conviction was recorded.
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