Melbourne sex offenders: Steve Onnis, Damian Griscti and Aran Spottiswood
Victorians can’t find out who is on the state’s sex offender register due to a ban on public access. But Leader can reveal a handful of convicted criminals recently placed on the list for evil crimes. SEE WHO THEY ARE.
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Former teachers, gymnastic coaches and pizza shop owners are among the convicted criminals recently placed on Victoria’s sex offender register.
The offenders hail from suburbs such as Berwick, Narre Warren, Warrandyte and Rye, have been sentenced in the past three years, and have either served time or are behind bars for their vile crimes.
The individual crimes include raping minors, grooming through phone apps, and maintaining collections of pornography involving children.
The state’s sex offender register is unavailable for public viewing, as governed by the Sex Offender Registration Act.
Victoria Police provides basic statistics on the number of offences every financial year in its annual reports.
However, the Leader has complied a list of of some of the more depraved offenders who have recently been placed on the register.
On the register for life.
Onnis was on parole for deceiving women into performing indecent acts on webcams, and then luring them into actual sex.
He was meant to let authorities know about every email account, internet access and phone app he had.
But in September 2017, detectives raided his Rye home and found he had set up a Tinder profile and used it regularly over a six-week period.
They uncovered thousands of email, internet and Tinder accesses between July 20 and August 31, 2017.
Onnis was sent back to jail and faced the Frankston Magistrates’ Court on December 12, 2018, where he pleaded guilty to charges of breaching parole and failing to comply with reporting obligations.
He was given an extra four months to serve on top of his sentence, and he is on the sex offender register for life.
Eight years, on the register until 2026.
Meyer was jailed for four months in on July 30, 2018 after a court heard he repeatedly rang dance studios and costume stores, and asked parents for sex with their young children.
A stash of DVDs and digital files of adults having sex with children under 10 years was also found at his Narre Warren home.
On top of his jail stint, Magistrate Jack Vandersteen ordered Meyer to do a 12-month community corrections order after his release, and placed him on the sex offender register for eight years.
15 years, on the register until late 2034.
This former Melbourne University researcher and father-of-three is behind bars after he committed a string of sex acts on an underage girl, who was already a sexual assault victim.
Bevitt’s offending began in the early 2010s, and on one occasion, he made the girl perform a lewd act on him while they watched Star Trek.
He was interviewed by police in May 2018, and pleaded guilty in the County Court to sexually penetrating and committing an indecent act with a child under 16.
Judge Patricia Riddell sentenced him to a maximum of four-and-a-half years in jail, including a non-parole period of two years, and put him on sex offender register for 15 years.
15 years, on the register until 2035.
Griscti is behind bars for using social media app KiK and grooming a 14-year-old for sex.
Police arrested the Berwick 39-year-old in November 2019 after he used the app for three months.
The court heard he sent lewd pictures of himself to her, asked her to do the same, and invited her to visit him at work and if she wanted to have a threesome with his girlfriend.
He also told her he wanted to meet her schoolfriends for “something to do”.
Griscti pleaded guilty to using a carriage service to groom and transmit indecent communication to a person under 16 years, and was sentenced to 20 months’ jail with 14 months suspended on September 5, 2020.
Judge Anne Hannan also made him a registered sex offender for 15 years.
On the register for life.
Spottiswood used social apps MyLOL and Snapchat and pretended he was five years younger to meet a 14-year-old girl, who he later blindfolded, raped and filmed on a GoPro.
The 26-year-old, who lived in Warrandyte, was found guilty in August 2020 for the acts he committed in 2014.
They included raping the girl twice at Seabrook Reserve in Broadmeadows, and sexually assaulting her in Sewell Reserve in Glenroy a few days later.
Officers patrolling in the Glenroy area at the time noticed his car, made inquiries and later arrested him.
They later seized his devices and found more than 2000 images and videos of child abuse on his laptop, including children as young as four being penetrated by adult men.
Spottiswood pleaded guilty to sexually penetrating a child under 16 years and other sex offences in the County Court in August 2020.
Judge Liz Gaynor gave him a minimum of two years and a maximum of four years in jail, and put him on the sex offender register for life.
15 years, on the register until 2035.
This former Kealba gymnastics coach was given three months behind bars this year after he admitted to having sex with an underage girl in the foam pit at his gym.
The court heard Taylor Farrell, 27, began his offending when the victim was 12 years old, and he worked as a coach at Gymnastics Unlimited.
The offending occurred “at least once a week” until mid-2014 at places including the gym’s foam pit after hours, Farrell’s home, his car and Sunbury Park.
Gymnastics Victoria was told of his behaviour and referred the matter to police, who arrested him in November 2018.
Judge Michael O’Connell sentenced Farrell in June 2020 to three months jail, an 18-month community corrections order, and put him on sex offender register for 15 years.
Eight years, on the register until 2027.
This former Berwick Secondary College teacher was found guilty of inappropriately touching a female student’s genitalia on a flight home from a school trip to Indonesia.
The incident occurred in 1999 and was finally settled in the County Court 20 years later, after the victim eventually spoke up and there was delays in police action because the incident happened on a plane.
It followed other incidents earlier in the trip, which included West telling the girl she could “wear whatever you want” to a dinner, touching her knee at the dinner, and phoning her and describing sexual acts he could do if she came to his room.
West, who resigned from the school in 2016 after he was approached by police, was spared jail time by Judge John Carmody but placed on the sex offender register for eight years.
15 years, on the register until 2034.
Gray, a former Domino’s Pizza shop owner, was jailed for having unprotected sex with a 15-year-old girl in a shed behind his store.
The court heard he met the girl in 2014 when she was 14, and then starting making sexual advances a year later.
He had sex with her in the shed in September 2015, and did so nearly every Saturday for three months, and made regular inappropriate phone calls during the same period.
The duo kept a relationship until May 2017, despite Gray being caught out twice and confronted by the victim’s sister.
The victim complained to police in October and Gray was arrested in March 2018.
Gray was sentenced by Judge Michael Tinney in the County Court in May 2019 to at least 22 months in jail, and placed on the sex offender register for 15 years.
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