A Thirroul man who solicited pornographic pictures from an undercover cop posing as a teenage girl has been spared a full-time jail sentence after a judge found he was "too young and immature to be made an example of."
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Hayden Raymond Ebejer was 19 and had mostly retreated from the real world and into an online one when he accepted a Facebook friend request from an officer posing as a 14-year-old girl in November 2018.
Ebejer quickly sent the girl an image of a list of questions ranging from harmless queries about age and TV shows to overtly sexual inquiries about underwear, bra size and sex positions.
Asked his "darkest secret", Ebejer replied "I like girls younger then (sic) me".
"Like me? Lol," the undercover detective responded.
"Yeah," Ebejer replied, before sending through an explicit selfie.
Ebejer continued innapropriate conversations over two weeks, proposing he and the girl "touch each other's private parts" on a date. He also activated his webcam so she could watch him perform a sex act. On another occasion, despite being repeatedly reminded of the girl's age, he sent her an X-rated video and asked her to replicate it while wearing her school uniform.
He also shared nude pictures of a person he believed to be the girl with an online friend named Rabbit God.
On Monday Wollongong District Court heard Ebejer, a former Edmund Rice College student, had left school at the end of Year 11.He told the court his teachers had tired of his lack of abilities and all but one eventually "gave up" on him, and that classmates and sports teammates ignored and bullied him.
He said peers showed him picture of nude "girls that they got" and that "I thought that was what you do to get a girlfriend".
He said he found friends for the first time in his life when he went online.
He claimed he thought the girl was "someone who would love and care about me. I hadn't had much of that in the past".
He denied Crown suggestions he attempted to move the illegal conversations from Facebook to Snapchat because messages weren't captured as a permanent record on the latter application.
The court heard Ebejer was only recently diagnosed with autism and had struggled with dyslexia all his life.
Monday's proceedings were emotional for Ebejer's parents.
His rather, Ray Ebejer, sobbed in parts as he described his son's struggles.
"In kindergarten no one would play with him," he said.
"Even to this day he will drop out teh 'A' or 'Y' [when spelling his name]. I still have to tie his shoes daily. At age 11 or 12, other boys would notice that."
Judge Andrew Haesler found Ebejer's conduct was "exploitative and potentially harmful", but that his youth an immaturity made him deserving of leniency.
He was sentenced to one year and nine months imprisonment, however Judge Haesler ordered Ebejer's immediate release, provided he surrenders all electronic devices. He was placed on a three-year community corrections order and is now a registrable person on the Child Protection Register.
Judge Haesler said: "I trust I will never see you again Mr Ebejer. If I do, you will not attract the leniency you have attracted today."
"Your Honour, you will never see me again," Ebejer replied.
Ebejer's lawyer, Stephen Russell, welcomed Monday's sentencing decision.
"There'd be little benefit for anybody in sending him to full-time custody," he said.
Angela Thompson
Proudly Illawarra Mercury since 2008; these days covering crime and justice issues. UOW alum. Thrilled by the chase and sobered by some of the things I see and hear when I stand still - sometimes in the same day. ang.thompson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Proudly Illawarra Mercury since 2008; these days covering crime and justice issues. UOW alum. Thrilled by the chase and sobered by some of the things I see and hear when I stand still - sometimes in the same day. ang.thompson@austcommunitymedia.com.au
