Predator targeted more than 10 victims, some as young as 13, for nearly three years until his arrest

A Braybrook man who groomed girls online and lavished them with gifts in order to get them to send explicit images and videos has been granted name suppression.

The man has pleaded guilty to a dozen charges including sexual penetration and assault of a child under 16 and using a carriage service to procure a child aged under 16 for sexual activity. Picture: Aaron Francis

An online predator is facing jail time after he admitted using Snapchat and Instagram to groom teenage girls into sending explicit images and videos.

The 23-year-old Braybrook man - who can’t be named due to a suppression order - targeted more than 10 victims, some as young as 13, for nearly three years until his arrest in July 2022.

Two of his victims were also sexually abused in person, including a 15-year-old girl whose mother told the County Court on Wednesday her daughter was so traumatised she no longer attended school.

“I felt powerless to keep her safe and all I wanted was to take on her suffering,” she said.

The woman earlier told the Herald Sun her daughter’s ordeal started when the man contacted her online, before he began lavishing her with gifts, including a $270 pair of Nike shoes.

“He was love-bombing her,” she said.

“He’d tell her he wanted her to be pregnant and that he wanted her to be his wife.”

She said he quickly became possessive, wanting to know her daughter’s movements and requesting her Snapchat location up to five times a day.

The abuse took place while the girl stayed at the man’s home, with her mother saying he continued to torment her family with false allegations after she confronted him.

“She’s lost trust,” the mother said.

“She doesn’t go anywhere by herself. She was very sociable. She had friends.”

Details about the man’s vile offending against other victims were revealed in court on Wednesday after he pleaded guilty to a dozen charges including sexual penetration and assault of a child under 16 and using a carriage service to procure a child aged under 16 for sexual activity.

The court heard the man exchanged hundreds of pages worth of messages with his young victims, in one instance telling a 15-year-old girl “that’s not to (sic) bad” when she revealed her age.

“So is this okay for now we can do everything together but no sex until your (sic) 16,” he said.

In another exchange with a 13-year-old girl, the man asked if she would let him “f**k” her because he would “love to and it would make (him) happy”.

After his arrest, 91 photos and 58 videos of child abuse material were found on his phone.

In a victim impact statement read out by a prosecutor, one of the victims said the abuse had led her down a “dark path” and contributed a suicide attempt.

“You made me feel like just an object,” she said.

“I tried to look at my own body differently but you made me feel dirty.”

An interim suppression order prohibiting publishing of the man’s name was granted after the man’s defence team revealed he had been assaulted in prison and was being housed in a protective unit due to his charges.

In 2020, the man was handed a two year community correction order and ordered to complete 300 hours of community work after pleading guilty to similar charges.

The man, who has spent more than two years on remand, will be sentenced next month.

Crisis support services include:

• Lifeline 13 11 14; lifeline.org.au

• beyondblue 1300 224 636; beyondblue.org.au