A Greenacre man travelled to Wollongong to meet up with a girl almost half his age to have sex on multiple occasions, a court has heard.
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Evangelos Nussis, 28, allegedly took the girl to a secluded location at the beach and to a motel over two months in 2020.
Nussis was granted bail in Wollongong Local Court on Wednesday after he was arrested earlier this week, almost two years after the alleged sexual activity occurred.
Documents tendered to court said Nussis who was then 27, and a Wollongong girl aged 14 at the time, allegedly started talking on the online video game Fortnite in March 2020.
They then allegedly started communicating on social media platforms Discord and Snapchat for months, sometimes more than 100 times a day.
Police allege Nussis travelled via train from Wiley Park to Wollongong on June 6, 2020 to meet the teen, who was then aged 15.
They allegedly got lunch and walked to Wollongong City Beach where they found a secluded location and had sexual intercourse before returning to the city centre and Nussis went home.
Two days later he allegedly again travelled by train to Wollongong and met the girl before they got lunch and went to the same secluded beach location and had sex.
About a month later on July 7, Nussis allegedly met the girl in Wollongong and they went to the City Beach Hotel.
Nussis allegedly paid for a room for the night and the pair had sex. The next morning the girl returned to the city centre and Nussis went home.
Three days later Nussis and the girl allegedly had sex at the same secluded beach location.
Nussis allegedly met up with the girl a further three times prior to her 16th birthday but they did not have sex.
The documents said the girl "engaged in sexual intercourse willingly" but felt if she did not have sex with him she would lose him as a confidant and she would be alone.
Police allege Nussis had sex with the girl one more time in the Downtown Motel after she had turned 16.
Communication between the pair allegedly stopped when the girl's mother found out about their involvement.
Nussis was arrested on April 12 this year and charged with procuring a child for unlawful sexual activity and four counts of having sexual intercourse with a child aged 14 to 16 years old.
He participated in a police interview and made admissions to the charges, the documents said.
A search warrant was carried out where storage devices, mobile phones and computers were seized.
In court on Wednesday, defence lawyer Phillip Butterfield said his client had no criminal history and therefore a full-time custodial sentence for the charges was not inevitable if convicted.
Mr Butterfield said his client had a significant health issue of sleep apnea which had prevented him from obtaining employment. He said Nussis had sought treatment for it including psychology and physical therapy.
The police prosecutor opposed bail noting the seriousness of the allegations, that Nussis allegedly made full admissions and the alleged victim needed to be protected given her age.
Magistrate Chris McRobert said Nussis had cooperated with police and there had been no further allegations since July 2020.
"It seems to me that altogether his behaviour is grossly inappropriate, and I am not suggesting the court has sympathy for the behaviour but a sentence of full time custody cannot be ruled out but it is not inevitable," he said.
Magistrate McRobert noted the police had not indicated the girl had been physically coerced into the alleged sexual activity but it was prohibited by law.
"The victim appears to have been a willing participant," he said, adding there was likely an element of "emotional coercion".
Nussis was granted strict conditional bail where he must live at his Greenacre home, report to police once a week, surrender his passport and not be in the company of a person under the age of 16 unless in the company of another adult.
The case will return to court on April 27.
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