Garry’s Mod sex creep: Justin Andrews avoids jail time for using online game to groom teen boy
A mother’s worst nightmare became a sickening reality after a sex predator groomed her son via a popular online game. Find out why the convicted sex offender is now allowed back on the streets — and the internet.
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A former elite Sydney schoolboy who groomed and sexually assaulted an underage Victorian boy via a popular online gaming platform has walked free from court.
Justin Andrews, 33, was sentenced in the County Court on Thursday, to a three-year community corrections order after pleading guilty to three charges of committing an indecent act with a child under 16.
Andrews, from the affluent Sydney suburb of Bronte, used Garry’s Mod – a popular online game as big as Fortnite – to target the boy in 2012.
Andrews lied about his age to strike up a friendship and communicate with the boy via the game and then Skype.
He showered the boy with expensive gifts such as iPods, Apple TV and other computer accessories.
The victim’s mother allowed the friendship because she trusted Andrews’ false persona and let Andrews to fly in from Sydney and stay at their Victorian home because her son “idolised” him.
Andrews slept in the boy’s room.
He stayed with the family again during the 2014 holidays but this time he filmed and photographed himself committing vile acts on the boy as he slept.
In her victim impact statement, the mother said she was “sickened and disgusted” after learning what Andrews had done to her son.
“(I) trusted this man and welcomed him into my home,” she said.
The mother said she “watched (her son’s) life fall apart” but “rarely gets to see him anymore”.
She said her son developed anxiety, depression and drug and alcohol issues.
Australian Federal Police raided Andrews’ home in December 2014, seizing dozens of images and a video of the boy, which included pornographic material.
Andrews, who was convicted and jailed in NSW in 2018 for child pornography offences, did not face the County Court until July this year.
The court heard Andrews was physically underdeveloped because his non-identical twin brother was dominant in the womb.
He graduated from elite private school Cranbrook School after growing up in Sydney’s “posh” eastern suburbs.
A psychologist said there was a “strong need” for Andrews to undergo “appropriate treatment” to avoid reoffending.
Judge Paul Higham labelled Andrew’s offending as “utterly callous” and said he had betrayed the trust of his victim’s mother.
“You reduced a living child to the simple status of an object,” he said.
“(you) lost your moral compass.”
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However, Judge Higham accepted prison in Victoria would be a burden for Andrews due to his isolation from family and took into account Andrews’ early guilty plea, his need to begin treatment and the delay in finalising the matter.
He placed Andrews on the CCO – a sentence accepted as suitable by the prosecution – with strict conditions including mental heath and special offender treatment and judicial monitoring.
Andrews, who also pleaded guilty to producing child pornography, was placed on the Victorian Sex Offender registry for life with a condition he must disclose all “online personas”.