Geilston Bay Man boasted of child sex acts to ‘impress’ stranger, court hears

GRAPHIC CONTENT WARNING: A Tasmanian man boasted he’d had sex with several children aged 10 to 13 in order to “impress” a stranger on the internet, a court has heard.

A Geilston Bay man boasted he’d had sex with several children aged 10 to 13 in order to “impress” a stranger on the internet, a court has heard.

Nicholas Richard Golding faced Hobart Magistrates Court on March 1 where he pleaded guilty to one count of making/reproducing child exploitation material.

The material in question was the contents of a Skype chat conversation where he described how he had sex with several children, although the Crown prosecutor alleges that none of these sex acts actually took place.

Nicholas Richard Golding. Picture: Facebook

His Skype conversation partner was a man going by the alias of Alex Johnson, with whom he messaged back and forth for a period of nine months starting from 29 August 2019.

The court heard excerpts from their Skype chat, where Mr Golding claims he is friends with a 13-year-old girl who he had claimed to have sexual relations with two to three times a week.

When Mr Johnson asked for photographs of the girl in question, Mr Golding is alleged to have taken photos of young girls from Instagram, blurred out their faces, and sent them to Mr Johnson.

Nicholas Richard Golding outside Hobart Magistrates Court. Picture: Kenji Sato

The girls in the pictures were either fully clothed or wearing swimsuits, and do not qualify as child exploitation material in-and-of-themselves.

Mr Golding also claimed he used to work at a gym, where he taught three girls aged 10, 11, and 11.

He told Mr Johnson that he digitally penetrated and performed oral sex on those children, and received oral sex in return.

He sent Mr Johnson a photograph of a girl who he claimed was one of the 11-year-olds, again fully-clothed and with her face blurred.

The identity and whereabouts of Mr Johnson is unknown.

The crown prosecutor said Mr Golding’s messages were a criminal offence, even if none of them actually took place.

Nicholas Richard Golding (top left) outside Hobart Magistrates Court. Picture: Kenji Sato

“The chat conversation outlined above falls within the definition of child exploitation material as defined by section 71 of the classification for publications, films, and computer games enforcement act 1994,” the prosecutor said.

Mr Golding’s defence lawyer agreed that his actions were illegal, however she said his acts were “total fantasy” and on the lower end of the spectrum of child exploitation offences.

Furthermore she said Mr Golding gave “full and frank admissions” to police when they searched his house, and had not tried to hide or minimise his actions when questioned by officers.

Since no other instances of child exploitation materials were found on his devices, the defence lawyer said this appeared to be an “isolated incident” that happened when the defendant was only 21 year old.

“I’d submit he’s somebody who’s young, who’s come into contact with this person, and he’s trying to impress this person.”

“Though it’s bad, I’m not trying to minimise this in any way shape or form, it does diminish the criminality of the act because he’s not actually placing before somebody who is clearly involved and excited by child exploitation material, anything that is actually identifying a child in those photos.”

Mr Golding was granted bail and was told to reappear at Hobart Magistrates Court on May 3 at 2.15pm

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