Wayne Hodgkiss: Long Gully dad used drugs, booze to lure teen for sex

A Bendigo tradie offered a teen he met at a local sporting match drugs, cash and alcohol if she had sex with him.

A Bendigo father offered a teenager money, booze and drugs if she had sex with him.

Wayne Hodgkiss, 44, appeared in Bendigo Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday to plead guilty to sending the sexually explicit messages – including a photo of his penis – to a girl 30 years his junior.

The court heard over a 24-hour period the then 43-year-old plasterer sent sexually explicit messages over Facebook and organised to meet the teen outside a popular Bendigo shopping centre in 2020.

Hodgkiss contacted his victim, in her early teens, over Facebook after watching her at a sporting match.

Using his Facebook profile as ‘Wayne Hodgie’ the Long Gully man messaged the teen asking

if her mother checked her phone, before offering to give her money and “smokes”.

Hodgkiss then asked the teen if she was sexually active and the victim said she wasn’t.

He then pestered her repeatedly asking which sexual positions she and her boyfriend preferred.

The teen tried to block him, and by doing so accidentally deleted some of the messages.

The next day she was at her friend’s home when Hodgkiss contacted her again.

The two girls did not realise the person messaging them was the same man.

The man offered the girl’s money, alcohol and cannabis in exchange for sex.

He then sent a photo of his penis.

The two teenagers assumed the messages were a prank from a friend and agreed to meet the man at Bendigo Marketplace that day.

CCTV footage captured images of the Bendigo father waiting in his car as the girls arrived at the shopping centre.

The girls left after deciding not to meet the man.

Hodgkiss later messaged them saying they “missed out on $50”.

The teen confronted Hodgkiss online later that day.

“You can’t prove that, I’ve deleted the messages,” he told her before admitting to the harassment.

The teenager then reported the 43-year-old to police who arrested him on May 20.

During the search of his Long Gully property police noticed tiles which matched those in the pictures sent to the young girl.

Hodgkiss initially tried to claim it was not his penis, but a photo he downloaded off the internet.

The 43-year-old said he wasn’t sexually gratified by the messages, but admitted that sending them was a “rush”.

“Disgusting. I know it’s not right,” he told police.

His young victim told the court in a statement she had lost sleep, stopped eating, had broken off friendships, and had missed school because of the trauma.

The teen said she was scared whenever she saw cars that looked like his, and often felt sad and angry.

“I would mope around the house all day,” she said.

The teen said her mother lost work looking after her, as she “couldn’t be alone.”

“I’m trying to move on from this.”

His lawyer, Luke Docherty said Hodgkiss now had a “tenuous” relationship with the mother of his daughter.

“Unsurprisingly it’s had a very significant impact on his life,’ he said.

On Wednesday August 11, Hodgkiss pleaded guilty to encouraging a child to engage in sexually activity and offering to pay a child to take part in a sexual act.

Mr Docherty said Hodgkiss had co-operated with police and had the capacity to comply with a community corrections order.

But magistrate Ross Betts said his actions warranted a prison sentence on top of the mandatory eight years on the sex offenders register.

“(This is) disgraceful and disgusting conduct,” Mr Betts said

Mr Betts sentenced Hodgkiss to an 18-month term in prison with a 12-month non-parole period.

Hodgkiss said he intended to appeal his sentence.

He was granted bail until October when his case will be referred to Shepparton County Court for a further hearing.