Lachlan Graham fronts court over repeated sexual grooming charge

A Swan Hill grub with a shocking history of offending against children was busted requesting sexually explicit photos during her conversation with a covert online operative.

Lachlan Graham will be out of prison in two weeks after serving 300 days on charges of grooming and possession of child abuse material.

An unrepentant grub was back grooming a child for sex and possessing child abuse material despite two earlier non-custodial sentences for similar offending.

Lachlan Graham, 26, of Swan Hill, contravened sex offenders’ registration obligations on at least two occasions since 2021 following sentences of community corrections order.

Graham, who now identifies as a female, was sentenced to three-years’ imprisonment when she appeared in the County Court at Melbourne on Monday.

Judge Gerard Mullay ordered that she be released on a reconnaisance order after serving 300 days which will be up in two weeks.

She pleaded guilty to charges of Failing to comply with the sex offenders’ registration obligations, using a carriage service to groom a child under 16 and possession of child abuse material.

In Dec 2019, Graham was sentenced to a two-year community corrections order on charges of soliciting child abuse material and using a carriage service to groom a child under 16.

An undercover police officer posing as Charlotte sent communication to Lachlan Graham for nearly a month.

She came before the County Court again in 2021 and pleaded guilty to having sex twice with a 13-year-old. She was again sentenced to a two-year community corrections order but appeared in court in 2023 for non-compliance and placed on an adjourned undertaking for two years.

Judge Mullay said Graham again failed to comply by creating email addresses and user names that were not reported to police.

On April 10, 2023 in a targeted operation, she received communications on Facebook from an undercover police officer posing as Charlotte.

Judge Mullaly said Graham’s initial communications in the following days acknowledged that she was a child and Graham, who explained to her that she was transgender, was an adult. Conversations then became sexualized and as early as April 27, 2023 Graham sent explicit photos and asked for the same from who she thought was Charlotte.

Over the following days, Judge Mullaly said conversations became more explicit as Graham sought photos as well as indicated she wanted to have sex with Charlotte. The conversations between the two lasted from April 10 to May 8.

Police came to her home on May 9 and seized two mobile phones and found a video of a child involved in a lewd sex act.

Graham was arrested and bailed from May 10 with strict conditions; however, there was concern about her compliance and she was re-arrested on Aug 14.

“Your failures to comply with the sex offenders registration obligations were no idle oversights. You have been warned and given chances,” Judge Mullay said.