Kashyap Patel fronts court for grooming a 15-year-old girl
A Melbourne deviant exchanged nudes with a 15-year-old girl and suggested he could facilitate her working at a brothel to make “a lot of money”.
South East
Don't miss out on the headlines from South East . Followed categories will be added to My News.
A vile grub who exchanged nudes with a 15-year-old girl and offered to facilitate her work as an escort at a brothel has been sent to jail.
Kashyap Patel, 40, will serve nine months behind bars before he’s released on a community corrections order for two years after pleading guilty to charges of grooming a child under 16, sexual assault and using a carriage serve to transmit indecent communication.
He appeared in the County Court for sentencing on Monday.
Judge Peter Rozen said Patel introduced himself to the girl as “Luke” on the anonymous chatting application AntiLand and told her he wanted to meet someone for casual sex.
Between February 4 and 21, 2021 Patel asked her to meet him after school for sex and told her he would bring protection.
He also asked her for sexually explicit photos of herself, which she sent, and Patel sent her one photo of his erect penis.
Patel told her he’d use her nude photos to obtain contracts for her to work as an escort at a brothel where she could make “a lot of money”.
On February 18, 2021 after the Covid lockdown concluded at 1am, Patel picked her up in his car near her home, drove a short distance, gave her a cigarette and touched her on the arms and upper thigh in a sexual manner.
Patel then said he was unsure whether he wanted to have sex with her as she seemed like a nice girl.
He dropped her home and she told her father who contacted police.
On May 19, 2021 police executed a search warrant at his home and seized mobile phone and storage devices.
Patel told police the girl claimed she was 18 or 19 and wanted a vape in exchange for sex.
Judge Rozen said the aggravating factors were the 25-year age gap between the girl and Patel, his use of a fake name, the sending and receiving of nudes and the particularly depraved suggestion that she work as an escort at a brothel.
He said Patel minimised or attempted to blame her for his offending until five weeks before he participated in a sex offender treatment program.
Patel also wrote a letter of apology to the girl and her family.
Patel’s wife of 17 years wrote to the court, expressing his deep sorrow and the impact of his offending on their family.
She considered his grooming to be a one-off incident and didn’t believe it would happen again.
