Former Deakin Uni employee jailed for indecent messages to boy on Instagram

A DEAKIN employee who sent indecent messages on Instagram to a teenage boy he met on a school trip to the uni was later caught by an undercover cop posing as a 14-year-old — but the creep will spend less than a year in jail.

A FORMER Deakin University employee who used Instagram to indecently communicate with a 13-year-old boy will spend less than a year behind bars.

David Botting also pleaded guilty to procuring a person believed to be under 16 for sexual activity, after messaging an undercover cop, who he believed was a 14-year-old boy, on Facebook.

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He was convicted and sentenced in the Victorian County Court after pleading guilty to the two charges.

Botting met a 12-year-old boy who was on a school excursion to the university’s Burwood campus in 2016.

Botting, who was full-time at the university as a technical director and manager of the Deakin Broadcast Studio but has since resigned, gave the victim his Instagram username.

The pair messaged each other for almost two months after becoming Instagram friends.

Botting is a member of a Hawthorn church and was provided with a character reference by its pastor.

The boy was on a school trip to Deakin University when he met Botting. Picture: Janine Eastgate

The court heard last month Botting drove the conversation towards that of a “sexual nature”.

Botting messaged the boy asking if he ever got “morning glory” or “morning wood” while also describing to his victim how he “lay in bed masturbating”.

The messages ended when the victim’s mother contacted police.

On March 25, 2017, an undercover cop posing as 14-year-old boy sent Botting a friend request via Facebook, which he accepted.

After regularly messaging the officer for a month, Botting arranged to meet who he believed was a 14-year-old boy at Hawthorn McDonald’s.

He was arrested but denied he had gone to the McDonald’s to engage in sexual activity — telling cops he felt he was “ripped off” and “set up”.

Botting also denied giving out his Instagram username to his victim or any other primary school students while at Deakin University.

He later admitted to messaging his victim with “one of those conversations I knew I shouldn’t have had at the time”.

He also said the conversation “was not good”.

The boy outlined in his victim impact statement how the offending made him feel “embarrassed” while hoping “it would go away”.

The boy also described how the messages “started off talking about Adidas and Nike stuff” but soon “the content made him feel very uncomfortable”.

He said “he no longer had confidence and did not have many friends” and he “felt safer at home on his own”.

The victim’s parents expressed concern about “how an adult at university of any kind could do that to an innocent child”.

They also said their son “had to mature faster than a child should and they never wanted this to happen to anyone else’s child”.

The New Zealand-born Botting was a member of Hawthorn’s Encore Church, where he undertook training in leading prayer and counselling.

The court heard how Botting advised senior members of his offending.

Despite this, the church’s pastor, Annie Leyton, gave Botting a character reference describing him as “trustworthy, dependable and socially appropriate within the church community”.

Another member also gave Botting a reference saying she would “continue to support him”.

Judge Susan Pullen described Botting’s offending as “most serious and disturbing”.

“I have guarded optimism regarding your prospects of rehabilitation, given in part your minimisation of your offending in the record of interview,” she said.

Botting, who faced a maximum of 15 years behind bars, was convicted and sentenced to 24 months’ imprisonment, 15 of them wholly suspended.

He will undertake a Recognisance Release Order and possibly attend a sex offender program upon his release.