Territory health professional Sean Patrick Battye sentenced for child abuse material offences

A Territory health professional blackmailed children into sending him explicit images. A court heard he is highly manipulative and addicted to pornography. Read his sentence here.

A Territory health professional who posed as a teenager and blackmailed young girls to send him child exploitation material on a popular social media platform has been jailed for his “highly manipulative” crimes.

Sean Patrick Battye, an accredited exercise scientist, was sentenced in the Supreme Court on Monday after pleading guilty on Friday.

The 30-year-old, who lived in Katherine for around three years, was charged with 39 offences including using a carriage service to obtain child abuse material, using a carriage service to groom a person under 16 and transmitting indecent communication to a person under 16 after being arrested in March following a tip-off from authorities in the United States in 2021.

Katherine health professional Sean Patrick Battye has been jailed for almost 40 child abuse material offences. Picture: Supplied

Between October 2021 and March 2022, Battye used the instant messaging service Discord to pose as a girl aged between 10 and 14, targeting 19 children aged between 10 and 15, the court heard.

He told his victims he was a girl who identified as polyamorous and bisexual in order to gain their trust.

During the conversations, Battye received “sexually explicit images” of his victims and “engaged in sexually explicit conversations”, as well as sending explicit images which he told the victims were images of the girl he was posing to be to prove she was a “real person” and not a “creepy old man”.

He would ask the victims if they wanted to be his girlfriend and engage in “sexually explicit conversations which included sexual role play with the victim”.

Posing as a girl, Battye would occasionally introduce a man named Sean into the conversation as his persona’s babysitter and tell them Sean thought the victim was “sexy or hot”.

Battye, who has been in protection at the Holtze Correctional Facility, would then threaten to share images he had received of his victims with other group chats if they refused to send more.

Battye pretended to be teenage girl to solicit child abuse material from 19 victims aged between 10 and 15. Picture: Supplied

The court heard Battye was diagnosed with Klinefelter syndrome, a genetic condition that causes low testosterone and sperm production in males.

A psychiatric report said the condition had “adversely affected” Battye’s development during adolescence, causing him to be “shy, retiring, awkward around women and lacking in sexual experience” which resulted in him “engaging compulsively in pornography for masturbatory purposes”.

The court also heard Battye’s ex-wife had raised concerns about his “addiction to pornography”.

In his sentencing, Acting Justice Trevor Riley said the material Battye sent and received was “sexualised, quite inappropriate and quite disturbing” and the language used in the Discord conversations was “sexualise, explicit, disturbing and at times disgusting”.

“This offending was obviously serious,” he said.

“Your conduct must have had a significantly detrimental impact on your victims. You groomed them and at times threatened them if they ceased to co-operate. Your conduct was highly manipulative, persistent and sexually motivated.

Battye’s offending was described as “highly manipulative, persistent and sexually motivated”. Picture: Supplied

“The court must send a message that possession of child pornography will be punished severely.”

Justice Riley said Battye was “unlikely” to reoffend if he received appropriate support.

Battye was convicted on each of the 39 charges and sentenced to three years and nine months in prison with a non-parole period of two years.

His sentence was backdated to March 24.

Outside of court, Battye’s parents said they supported him and were “surprised” to learn of his offending.