Westmeadows man jailed after raping girls he groomed online

A Westmeadows fiend who raped two teens and forced a group of girls to perform sick sexual acts has been thrown behind bars.

Luke Coughlan was sentenced at the County Court.

A Westmeadows man has been jailed after he raped two teens and forced a group of girls from across the world to perform sick sexual acts.

Luke Peter Joseph Coughlan, 43, was sentenced at the County Court on Tuesday after pleading guilty to multiple charges including sexual penetration of a child under 16, grooming a child under 16, production of child pornography and using a carriage service to procure a minor for sexual activity.

The court heard the man was living with his mum while he used online chatrooms to groom five teenagers from Victoria, Western Australia, United States 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 from January 2017 to October 2019, where Coughlan convinced 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 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.

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

Mr Kozlowski said the man, who has autism and ADHD, was seeking relationships to make him feel in control and dominant.

He also said Coughlan 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 Coughlan’s sexual offending was extremely serious due to the nature, duration and the number of victims.

“In my view, it is clear that you sort out vulnerable females to pursue the power dynamic,” Judge Sexton said.

“You were in my view aware of your victims’ vulnerabilities and yet offended in the manner described.”

Coughlan was convicted and sentenced to nine years and three months imprisonment with a non-parole period of six years and nine months.

He will remain on the sex offender register for life.

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