Epping Cricket Club sex grub Leigh Howes avoids jail after pleading guilty to child sex crimes: Court
A Melbourne-based cricket club sex predator claimed he copped “very nasty” calls after his lewd exploits against a young girl were exposed.
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A Melbourne-based cricket club stalwart told a magistrate he received “nasty” phone calls from “former friends” after they found out he had preyed on a young girl.
Leigh Howes, 33, faced the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Monday for sentencing after last week pleading guilty to multiple charges including encourage a child under 16 for sexual activity.
In a late submission to the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court, the defence acting for Leigh Howes highlighted a media article which led to the 33-year-old receiving “nasty” and “distressing” phone calls from “former friends and associates”.
Magistrate Kay Robertson, however, said “people had to trust the justice system” as she convicted him.
She told him to report any alleged criminal behaviour from former associates to police, and made him a registered sex offender for 15 years.
Howes escaped jail and was instead placed on a two-year community correction order after he used Snapchat to encourage a teenage girl to send him sexual pictures.
“F--- I forgot how beautiful your boobs are,” the fiend said.
The victim sent Howes a photo which he screenshotted but then asked the girl to “go lower”.
Howes also asked the child — who he met while volunteering at a cricket club — if she was “shaved or hairy”.
The victim told Howes to “stop saving my snaps” because if caught “you’ll go to jail”.
Howes begged his victim to send more lewd images after he promised her he would not save screenshots but she refused.
He also sent the child images of his penis on multiple occasions.
Howes was reported to sex crime investigators on January 2 last year and police raided his home where they caught him with lewd images of the child.
Howes, of South Morang, also admitted the penis photos were his and claimed he committed the offending because he was “sad”.
“I have struggles in my life,” Howes told police.
The defence submitted, during an earlier plea hearing, Howes was an Epping Cricket Club volunteer who helped at the canteen and assisted on “game day” and at functions.
Howes — a Mill Park secondary college graduate — is an experienced carpenter “in charge of all the maintenance” at St Vincent’s, the court was told.
The defence also submitted Howes has been involved in cricket since he was a child and had been involved at various clubs including Strathewen Cricket Club and a Mernda-based cricket club.
A video depicting Howes was posted on the Gilgai Plains Primary School Facebook page less than a month after he was reported to police.
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The post states Howes joined the “school team in the maintenance department”.
The post also stated Howes had been president and a cricketer at Strathewen, had worked for Banyule Council and had previously been employed at Marcellin College.
A psych report submitted to the court found Howes was an “average risk” of reoffending.
The prosecution fought hard during the earlier plea hearing for Howes to be jailed, submitting the fiend committed “predatory type offending”.
“This a (then) 32-year-old man and … girl. … That is not a ‘friendship’ that is inappropriate …,” the prosecution submitted.
“It is offensive to the community and requires denunciation …”
Magistrate Robertson, during an earlier court hearing, termed Howes’ lewd offending as “horribly wrong”.
“She has done nothing wrong … she has absolutely done nothing wrong … it’s incredibly damaging for her future … ,’’ she said.
“There is no excuse to break the law as you have done … you will be punished … volunteering, working at schools, that is where people need to have a clean record …
“And of course the reputation of that cricket club will also suffer as a result of what you have done.”
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