Former family support worker Alexander Jones assaulted teen after ‘truth or dare’
A man who met a 13-year-old boy at Flinders Street station and then weeks later molested him after playing ‘truth or dare’ said something shocking during the game.
A man who sexually violated a 13-year-old boy in a Geelong motel told his victim he wanted to try “weirder sh**” during a game of truth or dare.
Alexander Jones admitted to one count of sexually penetrating a child under 16 over the attack and was jailed for at least three years and four months in the County Court of Victoria on Monday.
The now 32-year-old sexually assaulted his victim on May 27, 2018 after he plied the boy with alcohol to the point where he was slipping in and out of consciousness, the judge said.
“It was the worst thing he felt,” Judge Scott Johns said of the victim.
Jones only stopped the assault when the boy complained of the pain, the judge said.
Shortly before the attack, Jones suggested the pair play “truth or dare” as they smoked and drank alcohol in the room.
The sex attacker asked they do “weirder s***” as part of the game and made the boy expose himself and remove his pants in a “super dare”, a prosecution summary released by the court shows.
The judge said Jones’ behaviour in the lead-up to the offences was “manipulative and predatory”.
Jones met the boy weeks earlier at Flinders Street Station when he gave him his Facebook details after asking for a cigarette, the court was told.
Days after they first met, Jones tried to access information about the boy on the Department of Health and Human Services database using login details from his former job at the Melbourne City Mission.
He stopped working as a family mediator at the organisation in September 2017 but still had login details.
The pair exchanged messages on Facebook and met on May 26 at a Hungry Jack’s in the city’s southeast before they got dinner elsewhere.
Jones did burnouts in his car and he and his victim slept in the vehicle at a campsite.
The next day, they met again and the boy tried to get out of spending time with Jones after his friends messaged him.
“You responded by making the victim feel guilty about leaving, pointing out you’d come a long way to see him and had bought him dinner,” Judge Johns said.
Jones took the boy go-karting before they went to the motel room where the attack happened.
Following the assault, he took the boy to the train station, bought him a travel card and never spoke to him again.
He also tried to access the DHHS database on the day of the assault and a month later but there was no evidence Jones was able to get any information during any attempt, the court was told.
The boy didn’t tell anyone until he had a “melt down” and was taken to hospital where he confided in a relative’s partner that he’d been “raped”, the court was told.
“He was silenced by the fear, confusion, instilled in him by your callous abusive conduct,” Judge Johns said.
It wasn’t until January 2019 when an investigation was launched and charges were laid.
The judge took into account Jones’ own severely disadvantaged and traumatic background, which included abuse in foster care.
He is an Indigenous man who suffered through neglect, violence and disadvantage as a child, with one report highlighting he and a sister were found “hungry, dirty and naked”.
Jones was sentenced to six years in prison with a non-parole period of three years and four months.
He has already served more than two years of his sentence and will be listed on the sex offender registry for 15 years.