No jail for procuring child pornography, inciting act of indecency

Our client is a 24-year-old Lebanese immigrant.

He was working at a Kebab shop where he met a 38-year-old female with whom he commenced an intimate relationship.

The female had a 14-year-old daughter.

The daughter began messaging our client on Snapchat.

Some months later Police charged our client with a host of offences associated with the messages sent to and received from the daughter.

The messages were of a sexually explicit nature and there were requests for intimate photographs to be sent.
Our client did not deny the allegations but advised us that he had been going through mental health difficulties.

We arranged for the client to see one of our experienced psychologists to address his mental health issues and engage in sex offender treatment.

We also began negotiations with Police to reduce the number of charges and amend the Facts Sheet to paint our client in a more favourable light.

Ultimately, the Commonwealth Director of Public Prosecutions agreed to our amendments and the charges were reduced to a single charge of Incite Act of Indecency.

In Court, we made lengthy submissions stressing the seriousness of our client’s mental condition, the progress he had made with his treatment as well as the cultural issues he had faced being an immigrant.
The Judge accepted our submissions and sentenced our client to a suspended sentence for 18 months.