Pervert dad Adrian Raschella jailed for grooming 14-year-old target via social media
A perverted Thomastown dad who calls himself ‘wogweapon79’ groomed his 14-year-old target for sex with pornography while also suggesting she pull a sickie from school to meet up at Westfield Fountain Gate.
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A perverted Thomastown dad who used social media to groom a target he believed was a 14-year-old schoolgirl for sex has been jailed.
Adrian Raschella, 41, was sentenced in the County Court on Wednesday to six months’ jail after pleading guilty to using a carriage service to procure a person believed to be under 16 years of age.
Raschella thought he was talking to a 14-year-old girl when he repeatedly messaged an undercover cop on the Kik application between May 2019 and January 2020.
Acting under the usernames ‘wogweapon79’ and ‘bots piss off’, the married man immediately began sexual conversations with ‘Sienna’.
He sent her pornographic photos, suggesting they try reenacting the images, and asked her to send him “live” bikini pics.
Raschella repeatedly asked ‘Sienna’, who told him she was a virgin, to meet up for sex, and continued even after his requests went ignored.
He suggested they both pull sick days and that he go down to Westfield Fountain Gate to meet up with her, or that she catch the train to Reservoir to meet him.
Raschella was arrested at his home in February and bailed with the condition he not use the internet.
The court heard Raschella battled Hodgkin’s lymphoma from age 15, which had a significant long term effect on his personality and biosocial development.
Lawyer Emma Strugnell said Raschella had no prior convictions, a strong employment history, the support of his family, and had been seeing a psychologist since April.
She urged for him to be handed a suspended jail sentence with restrictive conditions.
The Victoria University graduate worked as a graphic designer for an auto car part company before joining Victorian Performance Warehouse.
Raschella’s boss at the latter employer provided the deviant dad with a reference for court.
Judge Martine Marich said at this week’s plea hearing it was unusual to see use of “deeply explicit language” over such a long period of time, which didn’t align with Ms Strugnell’s argument Raschella was at a low risk of reoffending.
“I can’t keep him off the internet forever,” Judge Marich said.
Raschella was sentenced to 18 months’ jail but will be released after 6 months to be of good behaviour for two years.
He was made a registered sex offender for eight years.
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