A Woonona man accused of using the internet to groom a teenage girl for sex has been charged with a further six offences after three more girls approached police with the same allegations.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Troy Alan Douglas, 36, was already facing grooming charges relating to one teen when he appeared in Port Kembla Court on Friday on four charges of using a carriage service to procure a person under 16 years for sexual activity and one charge each of indecent assault and using a carriage service to intimidate.
The additional charges stem from social media conversations Douglas had with three girls - two aged 14 and one aged 15 - over the course of several months, in which he posed as a 20-something employee of a magazine in Sydney, in a bid to seek sexual interactions with them.
Police documents tendered to the court in Douglas' bail application on Friday said he contacted one of the girls in January via Facebook, writing to her "thanks for adding me and sorry [it's] so random lol [sic], just noticed you and thought wow, you've got a great body".
Douglas allegedly continued with the sexual tone, ignoring the girl when she told him she had a boyfriend, and asked her if she'd modelled, before telling her "you've got good boobs but I've seen better".
In February, Douglas allegedly contacted two girls via Facebook, one of whom he met up with after agreeing to buy her a mobile phone.
Douglas allegedly picked the girl up from Thirroul Railway Station in March and drove north to Sutherland, where they intended to catch the train to Sydney to buy the phone.
However, on the way, it is alleged, Douglas stopped the car and repeatedly groped the girl.
She was able to stop his advances, police said, and the pair continued to the train station.
Later that month, Douglas allegedly gave the girl $80 "under the inference he was paying for sexual favours", but became angry when she refused him and threatened to tell her parents. Douglas allegedly told the third girl, who he also first contacted in February, that she had a great body and breasts before saying her friends would be "so jealous if you had sex with a guy in his 20s," despite the fact he was 36.
Douglas was arrested on Friday morning and appeared in court that afternoon seeking release on bail, with his lawyer, James Howell, saying he'd been abiding by strict conditional bail for three months since the first charges were laid against him. However, Magistrate Mark Douglass remanded the him in custody, saying the prosecution case appeared to be strong, and he would likely face a lengthy jail sentence if convicted.
The case will return to court next month.
