Ryan Tovey sentenced at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court for grooming teenage girl in illegal ‘relationship’

A Heathcote man’s persistent grooming of a teenage girl in an illegal “relationship” has been revealed, with the grub claiming has “fallen in love with her”.

Ryan Tovey, 33, was placed on the sex offenders register for his vile grooming of a teenage girl. Picture: D-Keine

A Heathcote man told police he “fell in love” with a teenager he groomed after he was exposed using his position of power to take “emotional hold” of his victim.

Ryan Tovey, 33, was convicted and sentenced at Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Monday to a 24-month community corrections order for his “manipulation” and grooming of the child.

Tovey took “emotional hold” over the child during his months of grooming. Picture: Tinnakorn Jorruang

Court documents reveal Tovey’s insidious grooming of the child began in 2022 when he invited her to a Discord server which continued until January 2023.

Police analysed more than 13,000 messages which “show a clear knowledge of power imbalance, grooming and manipulation”, with Tovey coercing the child to send him sexually explicit images of herself.

Tovey steadily steered the conversations towards a sexual nature as he took emotional control of the child, talking to her from morning to night for six months.

The child’s mother became concerned about the “relationship” when the child started to become withdrawn from her family.

The child’s mother reported the grooming to police in January 2023 after discovering Tovey was “sexting” her daughter, describing sexual acts he wanted to perform on her.

When the child was interviewed by police she revealed Tovey had sent her pictures of his genitalia and analysis of messages revealed Tovey had been discussing sexual acts he wanted to do to her.

When asked if she realised she was being groomed she told police Tovey’s conduct wasn’t “unwanted”.

“It’s difficult to say, because every single person that’s been groomed or manipulated would say what I’m saying. It’s hard for me to not be naive,” the victim told police.

After the grub was exposed and charged for his grooming, a condition of his bail was that he could not contact the victim.

But just weeks later Tovey was back contacting the child again in breach of his bail.

Tovey took out a new phone number to do so undetected, “persistently” contacting the child with multiple texts and a five hour phone call made over almost three weeks before the pedo was arrested again on March 13.

Police fought to revoke Tovey’s bail arguing he was taking “emotional hold” over the child by “causing issues between herself and family”, distracting her from high school, career aspirations and mental wellbeing”.

The child withdrew from her family and suffered at school due to the grooming.

Tovey claimed to police that he and the child “were equals”.

When police confronted him about his grooming, he said he “fell in love with her” after they attended a wedding, and he didn’t see her as a child because “she’s mature”.

There were no allegations of illegal sexual contact, but the court heard Tovey and the child both wanted a sexual relationship.

Magistrate Russell Kelly told Tovey children under 16 years old could not give consent and the law was in place to protect young people from their own impulses because they are not capable of understanding the consequences of their actions at such a young age.

Tovey tried to interrupt Magistrate Kelly before his lawyer shushed him.

The court heard Tovey had spent 40 days in pre-sentence custody after his bail was revoked for “deliberately and repeatedly” contacting the child, but was released on bail again ahead of sentence.

Mr Kelly placed Tovey on the sex offenders register.