YouTube comedian Marcus Dibble pleads guilty to grooming child under 16 for sexual conduct
A filthy YouTube comedian with half-a-million subscribers sparked internet rumours after he vanished from the web. Here’s why.
Inner South
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A YouTube comedian who operates a raunchy nude model photography site groomed a 13-year-old girl for sex.
Marcus Dibble, 27, pleaded guilty in the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Thursday to multiple charges including grooming a child under 16 for to engage in sexual conduct.
Dibble violated his 13-year-old victim after she contacted him via his Instagram account for nude model photography business ‘dibbleprime’.
Dibble had posted a “questionnaire” to attract new models to his business, according to a summary of offending submitted to the court.
The girl told Dibble she was “13 turning 14” but the fiend said that was “fine”.
Dibble, who also pleaded guilty to produce, possess and distribute child abuse material, told his victim he wanted to “meet up” to photograph her.
Dibble “reassured” the girl that he would contact her mother before taking any photographs.
He claimed he contacted the victim’s mother via Instagram but the mother said Dibble never contacted her.
Dibble communicated with the victim via Snapchat, Instagram, email and phone between April 2019 and July last year.
Dibble “encouraged” his victim to take “sexually suggestive” photos of herself during their “sexualised” communication.
Dibble also encouraged his victim to talk about her “sexual experiences, desires and sexual fantasies”.
The creep told his victim what he would like to do her sexually and offered to take photographs of the girl “free of charge”.
Dibble sent the victim images of adult women in sexually suggestive poses.
The girl sent four images back where she mimicked the poses.
Dibble encouraged the victim to send more photos to a Dropbox account because it couldn’t be accessed by anyone else.
“Add whatever you like,” Dibble said.
Dibble told the victim he was “thinking of her” while “playing with himself” during a sordid phone conversation.
“If I kissed you, rubbed your back and neck, choke you from the back, have sex with you in different ways, would you like that,” Dibble said during another conversation.
Dibble booked an Airbnb where he arranged to meet the victim in July last year.
Dibble messaged the victim after she never showed up and asked if she would meet him when she turned 16.
The victim told her mother about Dibble’s Airbnb plan so she reported him to police.
Investigators raided Dibble’s Bentleigh East property on July 29 last year.
Police seized several devices and located child abuse material depicting the victim which had been altered by Dibble.
Dibble, a weights enthusiast, was also nabbed with various anabolic steroids.
The victim said, in her victim impact statement read to the court, she now suffers depression.
“It hurt my family,” she said.
The court was told Dibble grew up in Albany before earning fame and fortune as an ultra-popular YouTube comedian and “social media personality”.
Moya O’Brien, for Dibble, said her client made a lot of money from his 500,000 YouTube subscribers but ceased his “business” after he was arrested.
Dibble, a “call out” and prank video comedian, loss earnings including advert royalties and merchandise income after he halted his YouTube account and withdrew from social media, the court heard.
The court was told “salacious rumours” regarding Dibble’s disappearance swirled on the internet.
“There has been lots of speculation on the internet Mr Dibble has died … there was a lot of trolling … there was a lot of online abuse … that has had a huge impact on his business,” Ms O’Brien said.
Dibble still dabbles with his photography business but also works as a “consultant” for gamer energy drink Juicd.
A Juicd boss provided a reference to the court.
The court heard Dibble lives in Queensland but was “prepared” to return to Victoria to serve any sentence imposed.
Magistrate Ross Maxted ordered Dibble hightail back to be assessed for a community correction order and appear in court in person.
Dibble had his bail extended for sentencing on July 12.
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