Jesse David Wilson, 26, who can now be named, appeared for sentencing in the Gore District Court on one charge of exposing a young person to indecent material and causing harm by posting digital communication.
He was been sentenced to six months’ home detention with six months’ post-release conditions and ordered to make an emotional harm payment of $1500.
An online relationship started between the pair in 2021, when they started communicating via social media platforms Discord, Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat.
Wilson’s communication became increasingly sexually charged and inappropriate.
Wilson lured the victim ‘‘down south’’, telling the victim her parents were ‘‘caging’’ her and she should drop out of school and become his wife when she turned 16.
Wilson sent the victim five images of himself naked, including one from his waist down to his socks with marshmallows covering his genitals, and one of him using a sex toy.
The police statement said when the victim informed her parents of the videos, Wilson threatened her life, telling her he would shoot her and she should ‘‘kill herself’’.
He said he would put a pipe bomb in her mailbox, which he claimed was a ‘‘joke.’’
The court heard Wilson was in love with the victim and did not think of harming her.
Judge Russell Walker said ‘‘while you say you are sorry ... you knew exactly what you were doing’’.
He did not see any inkling of ‘‘genuine remorse’’.
The court heard the defendant had ‘‘distorted thinking’’, was ‘‘socially isolated’’ and had behaviour consistent with neurodevelopmental conditions attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and ‘‘possible’’ autism spectrum disorder.
Extracts from the girl’s victim impact statement were read to the court by the judge.
The teenager missed a third of her schooling last year and several months this year Could not sleep at night and was afraid Wilson would come to her house, it read.
An order was made to destroy all of the defendant’s digital devices, which had been seized by police and that he be cut off from the internet.
Wilson was allowed to keep his television, after his counsel John Fraser said gaming online was ‘‘his world’’ and that stripping him would be like leaving him in a desert.
Corrections will undergo an assessment to determine if the defendant could have any devices in possession that could access the internet.
The court considered his registration on the Child Sex Offenders Register.
This was declined by Judge Walker, saying this was the first time Wilson had appeared before the court and the defendant’s risk of reoffending was not high
