Alleged Snapchat groomer busted by teen’s brother, court hears on first day of his trial

A MAN who allegedly groomed a young teenage girl for sex over Snapchat before her brother and his friend concocted a ‘scheme’ to bust him has faced the first day of his trial

Jasvir Singh has pleaded not guilty to grooming a child for sex via Snapchat. Picture: Supplied

A MAN who allegedly groomed a young teenage girl for sex over Snapchat before her brother and his friend concocted a “scheme” to bust him has faced the first day of his trial.

Jasvir Singh, 25, pleaded not guilty in the Supreme Court to two counts of using a carriage service to procure the girl for sex and one count of transmitting indecent material to her brother.

Prosecutor Mary Chalmers said it was the Crown’s case that Singh contacted the girl via Snapchat using the username “Brooookk” in the middle of last year and asked how old she was.

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“She told him she was 13, he sent her a snap of his penis and a message that said ‘let’s f***’, he also asked her to send nudes,” she said.

Ms Chalmers said the girl removed Brooookk from her friend’s list but he contacted her again a few weeks later — again asking for nudes and now wanting to meet up — and she told her older brother about it.

“This turned out not to be a good idea because the children then made plan to actually meet up with the man,” she said.

“There was a scheme of sorts to maybe get some money off the man or to take photographs of him or expose him in some way.”

Ms Chalmers said they arranged to meet up at a local park a few days later and the girl, her brother and another boy “that had been roped into the venture” all went along.

“The evidence you’ll hear is that the boys hid and (the girl) sat on a park bench waiting for Brooookk to turn up,” she said.

Ms Chalmers said the girl opened the back door of the car and her brother “came out of his hiding place” and tried to open the passenger side door before hitting the car as the man drove off.

Police later examined Singh’s phone and found it had contacted the girl via telephone about 20 times on the day in question and it also contained another 57 interactions between the Brooookk account and the girl’s.

But in his opening address, Singh’s lawyer, Jon Tippett QC, said his client had been the victim of an elaborate scam.

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“(You’ll see that) this man was scammed and that the scam turned into a particular event,” he said.

“At all times there was a firm basis for his belief that these people he was talking to over the telephone as alleged were indeed over the age of 16 and there will be, we say, very firm evidence of that.

“This social media stuff that we all know about can be very misleading and you’ll see, I expect, how misleading it can be.”

The trial continues.