Alan Leah: Cranbourne East scaffolder allegedly assaults girl
A Cranbourne East dad, accused of sexual assault on a girl, including calling her ‘weak’ and ‘a pussy’ when she pushed him away, has denied wrongdoing.
South East
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A Cranbourne East dad allegedly groomed a girl online before he sexually assaulted her and called her weak when she pushed him off.
Alan Leah, 31, fronted the Melbourne Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday, facing 15 charges including attempted sexual penetration of a child under 16, sexual assault of a child under 16 and intentionally involving a child in the production of child abuse material.
Leah allegedly began grooming the girl in 2020, asking her to send him nude photos of herself on Snapchat.
She allegedly sent him several photos of her in underwear before he sent her three photos of his genitals.
Leah allegedly told the girl he would marry her one day, sending her a photo of the words ‘one day’ tattooed on his arm.
The court heard on one occasion he allegedly put his hands down her pants and touched her vagina.
The girl allegedly thought he was trying to penetrate her and pushed him off, before he allegedly told her she was “weak” and “a pussy”.
Leah saw the girl again a few days later when he allegedly pulled down his pants, exposing his genitals, and told her, “Suck it, touch it”.
She allegedly said no and he called her “weak” again.
The girl then told her parents and police, leading to Leah being arrested at his home on April 29.
He was on bail for several charges at the time.
Leah denied all the allegations but was refused bail.
The father of two made a second push for bail on Tuesday.
Police told the court Leah posed an unacceptable risk of interfering with witnesses, committing offences and endangering the safety and wellbeing of the public.
An officer said that while in custody, Leah had twice spoken to a witness about the charges and relevant statements and evidence on the phone.
Leah’s lawyer argued his client would continue to fight the charges and risked spending too long in jail waiting for the matter to resolve.
The lawyer argued some of the explicit photos Leah had allegedly sent the girl were not actually intended for her.
It was heard Leah was vulnerable due to his bipolar and borderline personality disorder, had a very supportive family and had scaffolding work available to him if granted bail.
Magistrate Reardon said there were exceptional circumstances for why Leah should be released from custody, but ruled it was too risky to do so.
Leah will return to court on July 30.
