Joshua Olding: Launceston man guilty of masturbation spree

A Tasmanian meth addict made dozens of phone calls over an 18-month period to a telecom, pleasuring himself whenever a female was unlucky enough to answer, a court has heard.

Summerhill masturbator Joshua Stephen Olding, 32. Picture: Facebook

A Tasmanian meth addict made dozens of phone calls over an 18-month period to a telecom’s call centre, pleasuring himself whenever a female was unlucky enough to answer, a court has heard.

Summerhill man Joshua Stephen Olding, 32, pleaded guilty in Launceston Magistrates Court this week to eight Commonwealth charges of using a carriage service to menace, harass or cause offence.

Olding’s conduct involved calling internet provider Aussie Broadband a total of 25 times between July 25, 2020 and May 22, 2022, despite him not having an account with them and in fact not even possessing any form of broadband.

On eight of those occasions, a female call centre operator answered, at which point would commence “heavy breathing” and “making sounds that indicated he was masturbating”.

At times, he would end the calls, which typically ranged from between two to five minutes, with a disgusting utterance, such as, “Oh, I’m going to come,” and, “That felt good”.

On the 17 occasions when a male answered the phone, Olding, who said he lived variously at St Helens and Rocherlea at the time of the offending, would “disconnect,” the court was told.

Olding was interviewed at Launceston Police Station on December 12 last year after the phone number used to make the calls to Aussie Broadband was traced to him.

The court was told that during the interview, Olding said he was “usually intoxicated” when he made the calls, would hang up when a man answered because he “isn’t gay,” and conceded that he “has a problem”.

“It’s a sickness,” Olding told investigating police, as relayed by the prosecutor to the court.

Defence lawyer Andrew Lonergan said his client, who has been “effectively homeless” for approximately five years since a falling out with his family, was “acutely remorseful and embarrassed”.

He said his client lived with mental illnesses including schizophrenia and post-traumatic stress disorder and was introduced to methamphetamine while living on the street.

Follow @humidityreport

His client had previously taken steps to address his addiction, including by being accepted into the Salvation Army’s Bridge Program, Mr Lonergan said.

However, he was forced to surrender his place when he commenced a relationship with a fellow participant, the court was told.

Magistrate Ken Stanton delayed his decision on sentence to June 27, to enable the commission of a pre-sentence report on the defendant.

Olding also pleaded guilty to charges of assault under the Criminal Code, and destroying property.

The two charges relate to an incident at Prospect on December 2 last year, wherein Olding spat at his victim, punched them in the head, threw a terracotta pot at them, and destroyed a vehicle tail light.

Olding was committed to appear in the Supreme Court on June 13 for the assault matter.

Originally published as Joshua Olding: Launceston man guilty of masturbation spree