Luke Coughlan: Westmeadows man raped girls he groomed online

A Westmeadows man was living with his mum while he groomed and later raped two teenage girls he met in an online chatroom, a court has heard.

Luke Peter Joseph Coughlan, 43, appeared in Melbourne County Court to plead guilty to grooming five girls, aged between 13 and 17. Picture: Facebook

A 43-year-old man raped two teenage girls half his age and forced a group of girls from across the world to perform sick sexual acts, a court has heard.

Luke Peter Joseph Coughlan, 43, appeared in Melbourne County Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to grooming five girls aged between 13 and 17.

The Westmeadows man was living with his mother while he used online chatrooms to groom five teenagers from Victoria, Western Australia, the US and Canada between 2015-2020.

Coughlan asked his victims to call him “daddy” and made them self-harm.

Images of one of his 13-year-old victims showed “Daddy’s Princess”, “I belong to Luke” and other crude words written over her chest.

Coughlan groomed his victims through the chatroom Omegle, which matches strangers based on previously selected shared interests.

In 2010, Coughlan used the chatroom to form an online relationship with a 13-year-old American girl, asking her to livestream acts of BDSM — bondage, discipline, sadism and masochism.

The court heard Coughlan took sexual pleasure from her pain.

Coughlan recorded their live video chats and saved them.

In 2013 he flew to Connecticut to meet his victim and filmed himself raping her before taking photos of the naked girl.

Another 13-year-old girl was contacted over Kik, a messaging service, from January 2017 to October 2019, convincing her to send self-harm videos.

Coughlan lured her to a motorhome where he raped her before giving the teen sex toys for her birthday.

The Westmeadows man also terrified a young girl from Western Australia after he stalked her to her home using the Snapchat map features.

Coughlan started contacting the girl, half his age, over Kik and Snapchat in 2017.

She initially believed they were in a relationship, but realised he was just using her for the sexual images.

When she tried to end it he threatened self-harm and suicide until she agreed to send more photos.

Coughlan travelled to Western Australia and asked to meet up, before using her Snapchat to track down her street, sending screenshots of her location and telling her he was outside.

She refused to leave but was too scared to tell her parents or police.

A 14-year-old American girl who believed she was talking to a Japanese boy, and a 16-year-old Canadian girl were also convinced to send Coughlan sexual images and videos.

He was arrested after police raided his mother’s Westmeadows home on October 14, 2019.

Police uncovered 828 images and videos from the five identified victims, but another 1100 child abuse images and videos of unidentified young girls were also found.

His barrister, Martin Kozlowski, said Coughlan had not been diagnosed with paedophilia, and was at low risk of reoffending.

Mr Kozlowski said his client, who has autism and ADHD, was seeking relationships to make him feel in control and dominant and it was “incidental” that he ended up with young girls.

He said Coughlan had spent 692 days in pre-sentence detention and had been the victim of a prison assault.

“He’s looking over his shoulder and fears of a big attack again,” Mr Kozlowski said.

Judge David Sexton said he was not convinced Coughlan was remorseful because he believed he was in a relationship with his 13-year-old victim.

“(If he believes that) he’s on another planet,” Judge Sexton said.

On Tuesday September 7, Coughlan pleaded guilty to sexual penetration of a child under 16, grooming a child under 16, production of child pornography, using a carriage service to procure a minor for sexual activity, involving a child in the production of child abuse material, and possession of child abuse material.

Judge Sexton said given the severity of the matter, his sentence would not be rushed, and adjourned the case to a later date.